Kristian Patruno

MID TWENTIETH-CENTURY PORTRAIT 
                                                       [OF TRUMP] (FoxNews edit of Czeslaw Milosz) 


Hidden behind [IN] his smile of brotherly regard, 
He despises the newspaper [FAKE NEWS] reader, [IS] the victim of the dialectic of power.
Says: "Democracy," with a wink [PATRIOT GUSTO!] 
Hates [LOVES] the physiological pleasures of mankind.
Full of memories of those who also ate, drank, copulated, 
But in a moment had their throats [TAXES] cut.
Recommends dances [THE N.R.A] and garden parties to defuse public anger.

Shouts: "Culture!" and " Art!" but means circus games really.

Utterly [THE DEMOCRATS ARE] spent.
Mumbles [RALLY CRIES] in sleep or anaesthesia: "God, oh God!"
Compares [IS] himself to a Roman in whom the Mithras [QANON] cult has mixed
     with the cult of Jesus.
Still clings [ON] to [POWER] old superstitions, sometimes believes himself to be
     possessed [ELECTORALLY CHEATED] by demons.

Attacks the past, but fears that, having destroyed it,
He will have nothing on which to [PEACEFULLY] lay his head.
Likes most to play cards, or chess, the better to keep his own [GENIUS] counsel.

Keeping one hand [ALL GUNS POINTED] on Marx's writings, he reads the Bible in private. 
His mocking eye on [G.FLOYD RIOT] processions leaving [VISITS] burned-out churches.
His backdrop: a horseflesh coloured city [POPULOUS] in ruins.
In his hand: a memento of a boy "fascist" [WHITEHOUSE] killed stormed in the Uprising.

Kristian Patruno is an Australian poet whose works have appeared in Westerly, Rabbit, Southerly, Otoliths, Australian Poetry Journal, and Cordite. Additionally, Kristian’s visual poetry was exhibited in POETRY an exhibition of text-based works that bear a formal relationship to the space they occupy (George Paton Gallery, University of Melbourne Australia).

 
 

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