Rust Belt Robot

Rust Belt Robot

owed to Auden’s “Unknown Citizen”

Superman did not wear his boots
Like a rust belt robot.
Rustbot strikes a blow for the humdrum:
The “thou-shalt-nots” and the “thou-shalts”
Drip no poetry.  The carnivore shall
Devour before being devoured & chase
Each cent down the rodent hole:  jump—
Jump through the looking-glass.

Believe in only what you see,
For beyond the rust belt, there
Are shiny things, but they are not
For us, they are for them
People.  We keep to ourselves
Streetscape, river-bank, or pine-wood
Where limbs scrape the clouds,
And we all stay where we belong.

You don’t have to sell your soul
To buy this advice.  You have to rent
It out on main street, where
The clack of stilettos fuses
With crack-heads, where gas-bag
Gutter-crackers all sooner
Hack as spit at you.