MagSafe America (a poem)

Sunday, February 23, 2025

Preface:

I write from the edges. My poetry often dives deep into the chaos, contradictions, and fractures of our world—channeling the voices of the overlooked, the outcast, the ones caught in the static. That doesn’t mean I’m lost in it. I’m OK. This is what I do: I take the raw material of the world—its myths, its madness, its machinery—and press it into something sharp.

This one, MagSafe America: Full Mag, Mad Genius, is a rapid-fire dispatch from the center of the noise. A culture on autoplay. A rerun of a rerun. A full clip, ejected, then loaded again.

MagSafe America: Full Mag, Mad Genius

god the father, jesus take the wheel,
but the road’s all ice and the brakes don’t feel.

everything a nail, the world to crush,
the calibers spin, we all come out dual wielding,
on the day of my daughter’s wedding,
tombstone, cowboys and aliens.

MagSafe America—full mag, mad genius.

clap down, smack and throw,
tossed, hammer head, on the pin,
where’d he go? where did he go?
chester’s dead.

talk to me, goose.
top gun, ghostrider, coming in hot—pattern’s full.

MagSafe America—full mag, locked and loaded.

powder keg, boston and that tea,
rebel scum, david and the empire,
luke, use the force.

rocky in the basement, coming up,
taking hits but still dangerous.

john rambo, that’s a lot of pain,
that sylvester stallone, crying in the corner,
that vet we despised,
the war that tore us up on the other side of the sea.

MagSafe America—full mag, out for blood.

the narrative, hijacked, i was born into it,
wolf blitzer and iraq 1,
way before that, the oil and the mid east,
and the money—what was that movie?

old-time religion, co-opted by scared neo cortex,
all screaming fascist, making mad,
on display,
like we love the muppet show.

the muppet show—give a warm welcome
to the nationalist, tribal, build walls,
attack on titan cascading into hate beyond our shores.

MagSafe America—full mag, rerun madness.

master of puppets, garage band,
metal blaring, fire on that coordinate,
terminate with code and remote control.

vanilla sky, my hero, tom cruise,
oprah winfrey, donahue,
the late-night show,
the evolution into absurdity.

MagSafe America—full mag, we mad.
MagSafe America—full mag, all staged.
Full mag. Empty.