“Contemporary Views of December” by Mark Cugini

Our poetry editor, Joe Pan, has selected a poem by Mark Cugini for his series that brings original poetry to the screens of Hyperallergic readers. For those interested in submitting work for possible publication, email 3–5 poems, with a cover letter, in a single Word document or PDF to poetry [at] hyperallergic [dot] com.

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The Jogging, “Rationed Water” (2013), hydrophobic coating, tempered glass, water, plastic bottles, fierce apple Gatorade, blueberry-pomegranate Gatorade, 58 1/2 x 33 1/2 x 20 (image via The Still House Group)

Contemporary Views of December

for L&T

When I’m feeling revolutionary,
I don’t read poetry—I go antiquing.
That’s that new shit, I call it The A-
political Kitsch, it utterly ignores
the contextual clues behind every
classist comma splice, hear what I
did there, me neither. I get to a point
in every chunk of text where I wish
I was doing anything but texting and
right now is about that time. O dear reader,
do us all a favor and update your Amazon
Wish List. Reorganize all of your porn by percentage
of genuine orgasms. Find/replace “duende”
with “Dutty Wine.” We’d all be better off
if we were getting better off’ed. You won’t taste
the Bubble Tape of your apocalypse unless you
first contradict the end of this here beautiful fear,
so hogtie yourself to a bedpost until you’re coming
with the clouds. Build a Lego village out of all
your credit card debt. Spill Gatorade between
those pegs and call me a neon river. Ride your bike out
past the plastic brick overpass until your high-
fructose-laced amino acids are painting you in a new-
ass neon. Saturate that shit until we can’t see
the edges. Trust me, I knew nothing
and you can nothing, too.

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Mark Cugini is the author of I’m Just Happy To Be Here (Ink Press 2014) and the Managing Editor of Big Lucks Books. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in Pinwheel, Sink Review, Hobart, Barrelhouse, BOAAT, and numerous other publications. On July 20th, 2014, he became the #1 ranked player of Kim Kardashian: Hollywood.