Militant Thistles

polemical poetry to prickle the politics of "permanent austerity"

atos Poor Doors Sheriff Stars spikes

thistles stretch their prickly arms afar

Black Triangle bedroom tax Disrupt and Upset

R.A. Allen

Muzak for Indigents

 

 

 

          at the bus stop

 

          at the health center

 

          at the payday loans

 

          Poverty is their angel

 

          and Want is her song,

 

          a low white thrum

 

          of persistent complaint,

 

          a birth fever

 

          that never abates.

 

         

 

          at other times Poverty

 

          is a mezzo-soprano

 

          in a coloratura

 

          of converging sirens

 

          —police, fire, ambulance—

 

          spiccato

 

          on the nerves,

 

          a turbine driving

 

          the adrenaline gland.

R. A. Allen's poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in the New York Quarterly, Night Train, The William & Mary  Review, RHINO, Gargoyle, Euphony, and elsewhere. He has one Pushcart nomination. He lives in Memphis for the humidity. More at

http://poets.nyq.org/poet/raallen