Branden Koch, “Threading the Caravan” (2018), pigment and acrylic ink on paper, 8 x 9.75 inches (image courtesy the artist)

Another blind eye turns away from a horrific atrocity.
Ears deaf to the screams: nose pinched,
Fingers severed, another brilliant mind silenced forever.
An act of dumb-thug brutality for which
There is no room for satire.
Thread the caravan through the needle’s eye.

Butchery will remain an indelible stain on those who permit it.
Enter America’s King Testicle and Prince Kushy.
Let’s make a deal for the future of humanity,
Holding the benefit of doubt intact.
Here’s complicity at its worst with
PR optics for shared human values.

Human rights align with strategic truths!
The daring sleeper with eyes wide shut!
Pipe dreams of cheap life, oil, and silicon a-flowin’.
Another standing ovation.
The World’s imagination wants to wake up and know.

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Branden Koch

Branden Koch was born in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned a BFA from The Cleveland Institute of Art in 2001, and an MFA from Bard College in 2005. His work has been exhibited in NYC at Regina Rex, Soloway...