“Heading West” was first published in Volume 9 of The American Journal of Poetry (July 1st, 2020).
Heading West
In a free world,
surgeons of words
could cut suicide
from ropes like a tumor;
and still, climbers
wouldn’t lose faith—
tying them around their bodies
on the wildest mountain.
The age of emergencies
has arrived like electricians
getting shock therapy
for schizophrenia.
Now our economy needs
the elderly’s bones;
living off buried
animals is nothing new—
call it fossil fuel.
Speed up the rate
of extinction;
save free enterprise.
Already, we’ve turned the uterus
of women into coal mines,
all for carbon-intensive babies—
there’s no resource we can’t touch,
no land we must conquer with consent.
The USA belongs to us, Marx;
we own the means of reproduction;
commercially transmitted
diseases are cured;
hospitals are factories
where assembly lines
for life end.
You have poor vision?
Receive books but no glasses.
You have poor judgment?
Build libraries
where no one returns
what they borrow.
Hold a camera
that forgets everything.
Speak to a world
whose eyes
never stop
taking pictures—
our ears are the windows
of skyscrapers in which people
believe they can fly.
Our minds are lightbulbs
away from spotting reason
in the darkness.
Our hands are paintbrushes
coloring millions
of homes white.
The scars on society
are visible like mistakes
corrected on a typewriter.
Still, our loneliness collects stamps—
only because there’s
no one left to address.
We became treasure hunters
only after losing our wealth—
asking gravediggers for shovels
and thieves for maps.
Presidents and PMs
of the free world
sit behind their desks,
bodies stiff
like exclamation marks,
egos bulging
like dotted eyes
never lowercased,
but still staring
like journalists
working in safe countries.
Liberty is now too popular,
hiding behind bodyguards
with guns;
democracy has nothing left to conceal—
like submarines
that are never in danger,
yet still refuse to surface.
Freedom is more than just freedom—
the ability to go anywhere,
but also without the danger
of landmines.
About David Garyan
David Garyan has published three chapbooks with Main Street Rag, along with (DISS)INFORMATION, a full collection with the same publisher. He holds an MA and MFA from Cal State Long Beach, where he associated himself with the Stand Up Poets. He received a master’s degree in International Cooperation on Human Rights and Intercultural Heritage from the University of Bologna. He lives in Trento.