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