Tony Medina

 

Giacomo Cuttone,“Giáp's Smile 2,” acrylic on canvas 40 x 40cm (2016)

Droning toward Bethlehem 

 After that drone flew over

My head, I can’t stop

 

Sneezing

 

I can’t stop

Wheezing

 

I can’t stop

Blinking

 

My eye won’t stop

Twitching

Itching

 

Tearing

 

After that drone flew over

My head, I can’t seem

To take a shower

 

Without running out

Wet and naked

 

As if imagining

The shower scene

In Psycho

 

Is the drone watching me

As I sit on the bowl

 

Scrolling through

Instagram photos

 

Or crying about

My paycheck

 

Or lack thereof

 

After that drone flew over

My head, I can’t stop

 

Thinking

It’s the IRS

 

And they want to audit

Me because I tried

Claiming my dead parakeet

 

Yaphet Koto

As a dependent

 

And I try every which way

To cheat on my taxes

 

Because they take so much

Of my earnings

 

When I still have

Yearnings

 

To eat to survive

 

Can the drone

See me wiping

My ass

 

Can the drone

Pick up when

I’m naughty or nice

 

Does it know I can’t

Leap tall buildings

In a single bound

 

But still wear a towel

Around my neck

And rock old lady chanclas

 

Strutting in front of the

Mirror

 

Like I’m Super Vieja

 

Is it possible

That the drone

Knows when I’m

 

Stealing cable or electricity

From my next-door neighbor

 

That I sometimes

Cheat when I’m

Playing Spades

 

Peaking at the

Hand of the person

to the right of me

 

Will the drone take a

Shit on me

 

Like those strange

Pigeons making faces

 

And straining like toddlers

In angry Pampers

 

Or bing me in the head

With acorns like those

 

Frisky fidgety ornery squirrels

Fucking up my recycling bin

 

Trying to play Budweiser cans

Like timables—

 

Prrrrring ting ting

Ting—

 

Does the drone know

The blow-up doll

 

Next to me in bed

Is not my wife

 

Can it see if I have

Dandruff, gray

 

Hairs—a bald spot

Or head lice

 

Does the drone know

I seldom say

 

My hail marys

 

That I’d rather

Smoke a blunt to

 

Speak to Jesus


 

 


 

Giacomo Cuttone, “The Enigma of the Hand,” acrylic on canvas, 80 x 80 cm (2018)

No One is Tariffied by You

No one is

Tariffied

By you

 

You wear

Clown makeup

For God’s sake

 

Of the three

Words you

Can remember

 

Peepee and doodie

You throw

At the wall

 

When you don’t

Get your way

Sure it’s a

 

Horror

When the shit

Hits the fan

 

But no one

Is tariffied

Of you

 

Breath of

Beefeater Gin

Without the gin

 

You really are death

Warmed over

A meat puppet

 

With rocky

Road face

Everything about

 

You fails

Gravity is

Having a

 

Field day

With your

Soggy flesh

 

We’re all waiting

For lightning to

Strike twice

 

Once against the

Golf club at

The ninth hole

 

(Dante would get

A kick out of that

Mar-a-Lago hellhole)

 

And again

In your

Archie Bunker

 

Piehole

So Edith can

Get some rest

 

A walking frown

You stink

On ice

 

The gods can’t

Deport you

Soon enough

 

Giacomo Cuttone, “Korda,” mixed technique on canvas, 40 x 40 (2019)

My Inaugural Poem

 

Trump is Beelzebub’s nut sack

Death warmed over

Horseshit on a barbecue rack

Trump is what you get when a

Zombie and a vampire dry hump

In a pig’s grave

What you find in the hay of a stable

Genius unable to wave off

The flies—O Lordt!—the flies

Trump was a Nazi youth in the 19th century

Dumbest of the dumb

Good ol’ chum

You toss in the sea

To see what bubbles up

To the surface

An Outback Steakhouse

Commode full of so much

Shit he pisses you off

Something fierce

Trump is a pendejo sucio malo

Who thinks mahalo means ma, hello?!

And grunts are actual words

Trump is the butt crack bling 

Of Hitler’s ashes

His face pictured next to

Webster’s diaper rashes

The O.G. inspiration for

The phrase Ay fo!

Chucky on crystal meth

Freddy Krueger death-defying mess

Inceled by his long-suffering

Fembot wife whose El Segundo

Clint Eastwood High Plains Drifter

Hamburgler hats and Snuffleupagus

Eyelashes give him the Heisman

(Foul-ass Beefeater breath so gravely bad)

Using Lindsey “Aunt Bea” “Well, Clutch

My Pearls” “Gone with the Wind”

“Hissy Fit” Graham to run interference

While she runs off for a row in the

Rose Garden with a Secret Service detail

Prettier than her Hair Thug for Men

Who’d rather have ICE drag her off

Like Blanche DuBois because she

Can’t put up with his godawful

Horrid smell (Yes, she’s been a-

Round open sewers in her day,

But this is ridiculous!)

An insult to human nature

He was pieced together outside

A morgue like Frankenstein’s

Monster

Boris Karloff’s crispy lungs

Singing like Al Jolson

Mammie! Mammie!

Mean mugging like Edward G. Robinson

Mwah, see! Mwah! Mwah!

With hands like pantomiming pinwheels

Doing the Macho, Macho Man Dance

As if jacking off Lilliputians

On the 6 train to Battery Park

Late night in the dark tweety

Thumbs cursing out ghosts

Roy Cohn Brother Fred

The cast of Night of the

Living Dead—old ladies

Whose homes he stole

Claiming eminent domain

Like rolling a dead mother

Or long-lost lover

Off the couch rifling

Through the seat cushions

For loose change

Digging in her mouth

For gold fillings to hock

On Truth Social or eBay

All hours of the night

Until the coke or the Adderall

Runs out or he wakes

Like a latter-day J. Alfred

Joe Rockhead Prufrock

To find that windmills

Turbines and coal mines

Combine to climate change

Karma his ass whipping

And whirling and slapping

Every porcupine on earth

Across his rough-hewn

Unpaved road dirty orange

Brillo Pad face

Wishing his poor

Rich mama never gave birth

Enema of the People

Every time he flushes the toilet

It farts out his mantra like

Little tariffs everywhere

Dickhead dictatorial

Bone Spur Hamburder

Having his creepy MAGA

Minions haplessly hypnotically sing:

Covfefe Covfefe Covfefe

Ca-ching Ca-ching Ca-ching

What happens when you vote

For a dump truck king


 

Cross

It is not

Criminal

To cross

Borders

In search

Of a better

Life for you

And your

Children

It is not

Criminal

To wade

Through

Water

Trudge miles

And miles

For some

Semblance

Of asylum

Escaping

Gangs and

Cartels

And those

Who trade

In human

Flesh

It is not

Criminal

To inherit

The earth

Only to be

Told you

Can’t

Walk

It

Stay on

Your side

Of the

Fence

It is not

Criminal

To breathe

The same

Air taste

The salt

Of the sea

To have

Similar

Dreams

It is not

Criminal

To be blessed

By the sun

And have

Wind rake

Through your

Hair and

Across

Your skin

It is not

Criminal

To embrace

The expanse of

This remarkable

Earth and the

Myriad of

Possibility

It harbors

To enjoy

All that God

Brings to

Bear this

Burden like

The sign of

The cross