remington way in poetry

Ilion New York where
the streets were paved with blood
literally paved by blood money once
every third street named Remington
the gun factory at its beating heart
for so very many years that
killed so very many people
by someone else’s hands or
by their very own
every third street
may as well have been
named Death
named Easy Way Out
named Final Revenge
named Desperation Robbery
named Divorce Is Not Enough
named Golgotha’s Proud Hill
named All That You Cannot Take Back

Ilion New York where
my father worked when I was young
not because he liked it
most of the people liked it and
worked there for the honour of
getting to build that manly death
most of the people liked it but
my father didn’t like it
it was how he fed us with his
blood sweat and tears to them
it was how I was
fed on the blood of the innocent
every person murdered because
rich men like to ignore the
“well-regulated part” of a
“well-regulated militia” and
grow fat off rampant senseless death
make a million times more easy than
if the cowards had to use a knife
or a baseball bat or a used car
if the cowards had been forced
to do a thing that took minutes
other folks could interrupt
they couldn’t kill those people
they couldn’t kill themselves but
the profitable gun worked in a
twitch and never could be taken back
all that death paving Ilion’s streets

Ilion New York where
it’s all Remington Streets really
all of them even if they’re no so named
my father died of heart disease
at least partly from chemical exposure
from building death machines for them
they tried to screw him out of his
full pension then he died too young
like Remington and Winchester and
all those other names did to so many
except in my father’s case
much slower

Ilion New York where
the streets were paved with blood
eventually the death factory was
sold to richer and richer men
further and further away and
along the way they kept on
claiming poverty to Ilion
kept demanding labor concessions
kept demanding tax breaks
kept claiming that people demanding
a little less senseless death were
breaking them as they got richer
Ilion always accepted
always capitulated to them
the richer richer further further men
afraid of losing the death factories
afraid of losing the jobs and taxes
never mind that the jobs got worse and worse
never mind that the taxes got less and less
their streets had been paved with blood

Ilion New York where
the streets are paved with
ten million people’s blood
Columbine Orlando Sandy Hook
maybe they weren’t always Remington guns
but guns are guns are guns and they
are all just as complicit figuratively
Kurt Cobain literally used on to kill himself
my dad feared that he had probably designed
the powder coat on that very barrel’s metal
the gun that killed his nephew Alan
was not a Remington but he knew it could’ve been
the chemicals there killed him too
without even firing a shot

Ilion New York where
the street are no longer paved well
but the death factory remains
like a fat gorged tick
despite all the threats of leaving
despite all the cries of poverty
churning out all the same murder buttons
except now more profitably

Ilion New York where
the water mains are all now bursting
during the mid-winter thaws now
crippling the town for weeks
making all the water poison
heaving the streets back up
into the air from whence they came
because all of the tax incentives
broke the village’s own budget and
the infrastructure collapse
the streets often named Remington
buckling under from the lack of care
from the tax breaks for rich far-aways

Ilion New York where
the streets were once paved by blood and
now the streets themselves are dying
while the rich men far away
make even more money off the murder
the murder everywhere
some other school tomorrow
some other restaurant on Friday
some church on Sunday and
they couch it all as freedom
but I can tell you one thing

it’s not well-regulated
that’s for fucking certain

Last updated February 08, 2019