A mature, experienced defiance

is what is demanded

of the artist, painter, composer,

musician, sculptor, poet, skier,

cyclist, surgeon, thinker, contemplator

Without defiance,

the tired and weary collaborator,

the easily oathed one

- foolishly bareheaded in the cold stream of consciousness -

flows without decent resistance

down the bloodstreams of the unreflected,

gushing out over the world

in zombie-eyed mass starts

from the slaughterhouses of the Kremlin

and the White House

A ruthless disinterest is required

by The Real;

the one who experiences the tactility of light

on the skin,

and fathoms the darkness in the depths of the flesh

The Indifferent passes the suicidal frenzy

of mass culture, fast food binges

and the disintegration of populism's quick-fixes,

invisibly

The Uninterested moves, strong & proud,

above the busywork of the ant people

with their suicidal trifles

and loads up with pyramidally health-promoting

breakfasts:
oatmeal, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds,

sesame seeds, sweet almonds, raisins, apricots,

lingonberries, oat milk

An oxygen-rich secular axe-sharp atheism is required

in the shaggy religion's hostile alienation

of the populace;

an annihilation of its compulsive superstition,

poisoning all potentiality,

dragging faces in dust and sewage

Yes, we require the pulling of gods and idols

out into the clarity and blinding light

of sharp-edged thinking,

where they'll crack and fissure,

the blackrobes and other charlatans

with their deceitful ideologies

May the stench of impurity

surround supporters and faint-hearted

We shall defy, be indifferent

and squeeze the juice

out of every godly tendency,

cut through its hardened stupidity

We need a caring ruthlessness,

and a surprise

that hits hard as ancient famine