Tariff Happy
by Bill Yarrow
Be subversive in your chores.
Knock at the door of indecency and demand to be let in.
Factor in your final calculations the weight of longing among the self-assured.
Do not fob off.
Keep a second set of books for Raphael.
Inculcate imprudence.
Wash with emotion, then with good soap.
Expose those for whom freedom is greed.
Scour the future so as to inure it.
Keep lists.
Change the air in your protocol every time you crave a tattoo.
Lock your knees at funerals.
Hands off the secret levers of the world.
Watch out for the kids of Narcissus.
Knock at the door of indecency and demand to be let in.
Factor in your final calculations the weight of longing among the self-assured.
Do not fob off.
Keep a second set of books for Raphael.
Inculcate imprudence.
Wash with emotion, then with good soap.
Expose those for whom freedom is greed.
Scour the future so as to inure it.
Keep lists.
Change the air in your protocol every time you crave a tattoo.
Lock your knees at funerals.
Hands off the secret levers of the world.
Watch out for the kids of Narcissus.
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Author's Note
This poem was published in Staxtes, a Greek Literary Review.
It appears in "We All Saw It Coming" (Locofo Chaps 2017) and "Critique of Pure Dreaming" (free download at academia.edu).
Other stories by Bill Yarrow
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The kids will fall hard when the going gets tough. Their skin is still baby soft. No scar tissue.
Lxx
Love this, Bill. Also find knee-locking is necessary preparation for wiliness.
"Change the air in your protocol every time you crave a tattoo.
Lock your knees before you do anything wily."
*
Very funny, very subversive! Gotta get this tattooed onto my protocol!!
Thanks, Letitia, Frankie, Sam, and Ed. Appreciate all the nice comments.
Enjoyed this especially the secret levers of the world and the second set of books for Raphael.
I'm knocking. I'm knocking. *
Thanks, Gary and Jake!
"Change the air in your protocol every time you crave a tattoo."
Interesting advice. (I've been craving a tattoo for years. What does that say?)
This one is good enough to demand no response. A slight widening of the eyes in recognition is enough.
Thanks, Amanda and Larry, for ratifying my madness!
Loved the edge to this.*
Thanks, Gary!