John Kaprielian
You Bastards
You bastards.
You self-righteous filth
torches held high.
You vermin who think
God and country are on your side,
heartless scum
angry that you are losing
power you never earned
but happily took advantage of,
the legacy of our shameful past
of slavery, racism, and sexism,
when lynchings were entertainment
wife-beating unquestioned
and native people
slaughtered by the thousands
like passenger pigeons.
You sick, deluded souls,
who think equality and
equal opportunity
threaten you
like a knife to your
most private parts,
who believe you deserve more
because you used to have more
simply because your skin was “white.”
You disgusting little men
and your subservient women;
you are a cancer,
an oozing, festering growth
that unchecked
soon spreads
and kills.
We will fight you
with words and deeds,
with our bodies,
and with every tool
and weapon in our arsenal.
We will beat you back
to your dank burrows and basements,
the dark places where
hopefully your last generation
will meet oblivion
and discover that
God
most definitely
was not on your side.
John Kaprielian is the author of 366 Poems: My Year in Verse” (CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2013) a collection of a year’s worth of writing one poem a day. His poetry is also featured in the anthology Live at the Freight House Cafe (John F. McMullen, 2018), edited by John F. McMullen. His poems have appeared in The Blue Mountain Review, The Blue Nib, The Five-Two Poetry Blog, Foliate Oak, Down in the Dirt Magazine, New Verse News, Naturewriting.com, and Minute Magazine. A natural history photo editor by day, he lives in Putnam County, NY, with his wife, teenage son, and assorted pets.
SUBMIT to What Rough Beast via our SUBMITTABLE site.
If you enjoyed today’s poem and you value What Rough Beast, consider making a donation to Indolent Books, a nonprofit poetry press.