Slam Poem: A Sarcastic Ode to Prohibitionists
My second slam poem, in case I make it to the second round. I'm not sure if there are 3 rounds at the Denver Slam. If so, and on the chance I make it to the third (which is possible, but I doubt it as this will be my first time reading these on stage and I won't have solid performances yet), I may scribble one down during the slam. Or if I get a chance, I'll write another tomorrow.
Anyway..
A Sarcastic Ode to Prohibitionists
Senator, congressman and woman, Mayor, Governor, Mr. President, and directors of the Office or Institute of such & such,
We, the sons and daughters of sensationalist news-saturated, scared shitless parents everywhere,
owe you an enormousdebt of gratitude.
With our bright, college education-indebted, service industry futures squarely in mind,
Courageously! You have spared no taxpayer expense in building a safe and secure place for us to call home --
On hard, cold beds in the jails and prisons infesting our fair land like sturdy pillars of moral fortitude.
You have D.A.R.E.'d us to resist the scourge of substances that make us sociable, self-aware, and prone to question your righteous authority.
You have laid down the rules -- for our own good! -- of what we can and cannot put into our own bodies.. Or else!!
You have sent police officers into our homes, cars, and personal belongings,
to root out and destroy the malevolent influence of lifeless chemical compounds.
Do not pay attention to the doctors, academics, criminologists -- defeatists, all of them!
Truly, we are winning the War on Drugs.
When you, dear leaders, legislate, dictate, conflate and mandate a slave state,
and with bullets and battering rams and SWAT Team screams of innocent children
take a drop from the bucket of the black market,
and it only costs a trillion dollars,
that is a cause for celebration!
You have made the world a better place!
* Poppy production exploding and destabilizing any sort of lasting, peaceful society in Afghanistan.
* Mercenaries raining poison onto South American forests and farmers.
* 100,000 dead in Mexico, severed heads decorating bridges & church doorsteps.
And here at home, shimmering.. razor-wired human warehouses, as far as the eye can see. Where else to put a million and a half arrested every year? Sure, there are only a third as many arrests for violent crimes, but think how efficiently you have maneuvered our precious law enforcement resources!
We can imprison our way out of this problem! We just have to keep trying!
So thank you for your hard work, for protecting us from ourselves, as we rush to Emergency Rooms in record numbers, all the while funding violence and corruption. It is your _good intentions_ that made this all possible. Thank you.