Rae Desmond Jones’ ‘Decline and Fall’

from Decline and Fall

i hate them
the truth is out! & they hate me. 

them, the barbarians in baseball hats,
twisting in chairs lined up in artificial order,
and carving their loathing on the tabletops. 

do you know why the roman empire fell? i ask.
who cares? a boy giggles.
that is the reason, i say. 

you are old & fat, they say.
they are young & fat, I don’t say.
because i don’t want them to get healthy

they can stay ugly and stupid so i can despise them. 

why envy the awkward root they didn’t have
or their perfect wet dreams pearling
on the television screen? 

outside the aluminium rimmed window
a crow strops his beak against a tree trunk

so that it will be sharp to dig
soft white worms from the dark earth.
i yearn for that brutal freedom.
the students resist my will although their heads bow,
broken for a second. 

the room constricts us all.
i almost say get out.
go back to your bad videos & your hopeless dreams:
be unemployable.
daub graffiti on trains
& put as many needles in your arms as you want.
die if it seems romantic. 

let there be war between us.