Requiem For The Lot Of Us

Scraps of ancient scholarship
mildew in my brain.
I am Western Civilization.
I jog in the rain.

I am Western Civilization
and I love foreign climes,
pictures with no people,
poems that don't rhyme,
stories with no ending,
heaps of metaverbal fun.
I am Western Civilization
and my race is run.

Casablanca is my movie,
I only groove to jazz.
I am Western Civilization,
I'm not one of the lads.

I accentuate the female,
keep a teddy made of patches,
I weep when I get e-mail,
at earthquakes or cup matches,
I am deeply moved by everything,
sunsets, warfare, pumas,
inflation in the Orient,
and other people's tumors.

I am Western Civilization,
believe in sensibility not sin.
Abort, divorce, screw everyone,
it all helps to keep you thin.

I am Western Civilization,
on the Internet I'll dwell
upon the fax I microchipped
via satellitic cell
to sign up the Tamil Tigers
to play in the NFL.
I am Western Civilization,
and, boy, I'm shot to hell.

I am Western Civilization
I am Politically Correct.
Blacks, gay men, dyslexics,
and those paralyzed at the neck,
and each one with a clitoris,
the many traumatized by Jaws,
shall find me most miraculous
in funding every cause
with money from the white male pigs
who led us from the caves,
painted the Sistine Chapel,
raised the Gothic naves,
wrote Hamlet, Wilhelm Meister,
penned Beethoven's Fifth,
discovered penicillin,
fought at Rorke's Drift,
built bridges, roads and cities,
and walked upon the moon.

I am Western Civilization,
this deadwood I must prune.

I am Western Civilization
I'm having a last fling,
the circumferentially challenged showperson
is just about to sing.

I am Western Civilization,
it seems no time at all
since I saw intriguing shadows
dance on dear Plato's wall.
Still, I had a good long innings,
several thousand years.

I am Western Civilization,
hey man, I'm outa here!


This poem is the copyright of liamascorcaigh (the Author) and cannot be reproduced in any way without explicit acknowledgment. Any commercial use is subject to the author's permission.