Jeff Ball (c) 2010 – Used with permission
dissection commences upon these
orphans of ideology
birthed of greed and invention
razor wire twined minds
inoculated against thought
suffering attachment disorders
imprecations rain when drawn near
our distended bellies emetic fed
military industrial complex choke-chain
asphyxiates a discernible truth,
speak for us we moan
as our mouths are sewn shut –
who threaded this needle?
the omniscient coroner sings:
humanity is a crooked timber
from which no straight thing
can be built (or imagined)
twisted images spin the picture
like crime scene photos
of abundance and stability
politicians and CEOs mistake
words of confidence for reality,
monuments of ego for power
missiles of tyranny
parading as democracy
mere echoes of Pericles’ stones
immuring liberty
flags dyed in blood from
renewable resources
(the marginalized and foreign)
nourishing the warmongers
in the ethical wasteland
these post-apocalyptic landscapes
leveled playing (killing) fields
are littered with mutilated animals
and fetid dead tossed in mass graves
waiting to be tallied by infallible machines
selected from the masses
the coroner’s team prepares to plastinate
stages of fixation, dehydration
forced impregnation, and hardening begin
pumping formalin through our arteries
removing skin, our fatty and connective tissue
a baptism in acetone
precedes vacuum impregnation
silicone rubber penetrates each cell
we are now posed, death grimaces
cured with gas, light, and heat
to a preserved splendor
harnessed for display
coroner proclaims science
has become more beautiful than art
our diorama, a stripped Arc,
impoverished ecology frozen in time
a testament to its endeavor –
technological mutations
of philosophy’s thunder
this towering foundation of Platonic ideals
denatures with rot, denies human striving
an exit wound embedded with fragments of skull
terrors devour and obliterate rationality
massive impersonal forces rumble
demarcating the territory where
vacuous monsters spew acid
dissolving thin barriers of freedom
as the great experiments fail
Notes: This is a significantly expanded rewrite of my poem Dystopia, previously posted in April 2012. If you’d like to better understand plastination you can read about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plastination. Also, thank you to Jeff Ball, my best friend, for the use of his photograph from the exhibition I had the honor of naming, RuiNation. More of his stunning photography can be viewed here: http://jeffballphotography.com/.
Chromapoetica 
A dense and highly pressurizing poem.
Best protocol for achieving plastination.
damn….good stuff anna…filled with wicked lines….particularly fond of…
military industrial complex choke-chain
asphyxiates a discernible truth,
speak for us we moan
as our mouths are sewn shut –
who threaded this needle?….dang….you tell it…smiles…what a statement….the exit wound…the thin boundaries of freedom eroded with acid…whew…tight…
One of my relatives is running for office and she was telling me about the surveys she gets from all the political organizations, some of which are really terrifying. I applaud her courage for trying to make a difference but the landscape seems engulfed in horrors. If it’s that bad at the state level I can’t image what it must be like at the national level. Thanks so much for stopping by to read my dystopian vision.
Quite nice. I must get off the short stories and give poetry a try again.
Thank you, nice to meet you.
Powerfully intense poem!
Madeleine, it is lovely to see you again, thank you.
hi Anna
thanks for such a powerful poem. and true. and shockingly familiar.
it is like the horror of news broadcasting in text.
on Radio National(Australia) this afternoon a South African environmental lawyer
called Cormac Cullinan spoke.
http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/latenightlive/wild-law/4277524
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cormac_Cullinan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_law
he talked about reframing law so that it did not start from a premise of ecological apartheid – ie people have rights everything else is object. aiming to make societies which are built on the recognition of the rights of the other members of our ecologies. for the good of the whole ecology not just one species or one member of one species.
he talked about going to a conference in Bolivia where 35000 people attended to negotiate for the rights of the Earth.
http://pwccc.wordpress.com/2010/04/24/peoples-agreement/
he is attending a conference in sydney on dangerous ideas.
http://fodi.sydneyoperahouse.com/#if-mother-nature-could-sue/
i still hope
j
Thank you for all the informative links, I look forward to reading up/listening to the issues. I’ll have a better reply when I have. There are certainly dangerous ideas out there, a conference to identify some of them is a good start. I still hope too. As ever, I appreciate your deep engagement with the poem and that you share your explorations with me.
Quite a powerful exposition of ruin. ” we are now posed, death grimaces/cured with gas, light, and heat/to a preserved splendor/harnessed for display” Scary imagery and metaphore. Nice work throughout.
My friend took this image in the midst of the Midwest collapse of industry, taking a tour through many industrial parks that have been abandoned. An exposition felt overdue, thank you for your feedback, it’s very nice to see you again.
Anna, as soon as I began to read this poem by email, I thought this must be retweeted pronto, and on second reading the sense of its ‘dystopian’ epic has deepened, but you have achieved more than that, for alas if only (!) it was just an imagined place (dystopia)..because the essential truth/s you reveal, with a real breadth of imaginative detail, is very much a ‘now’ reality..I really enjoyed the language & vision of your poem..K
I’ve been away all day with my friend Jeff and am thrilled to come home to this comment from you. How true – if only it was an imagined place. Thanks so much for the feedback, lovely to see you again :)!
your words ring with clarity, Anna. And the deterioration depicted in the photo is quite lovely.
Yes, it is actually one of my favorites from his trip :).
so good…starts with an excellent title and kept me glued to the page to the last line..military industrial complex choke-chain…the singing of the omniscient coroner …ethical wasteland…what a tight, tight write
That’s fantastic to hear Claudia, so glad I expanded it now.
your descriptors are pin-point perfect….most every line, mesmerizing. Stanza 2 – what an image! “who threaded this needle?” That made me pause, ponder…
“politicians and CEOs mistake words of confidence for reality,” Sadly, I think what they say is their reality – they are all delusional!
Excellent piece, Anna.
Politicians are delusional? 🙂 Thanks Sheila, mesmerizing is so making my day!
Very powerful voice Anna. You tell it as it is. Greed and materialism run the wheels of industry . We the ordinary folks get caught in the cross-fire. Wonderful verse!
Hank
Hank, it is an unfortunate reality, if only poetry could change the world. Thank you.
It isn’t often that a poem gives me the sense that I need to flee. Vivid, real and intense.
Oh dear, that’s awesome!
Incredible, Anna… You’ve capture so much craziness and with informative elegance; all seems so sci-fi, but it isn’t. (I believe it was Eisenhower who warned that MIC would change the course of things.)
Amazing photography that really partnered well with your words. Thank you for writing this and sharing this important piece.
-Eva
Yes and we didn’t listen. That you think I’ve achieved elegance is a cherished compliment :).
Such intensity…..amazing how so few leaders can ignite flames that decimate humanity. Powerful piece!
How true, now that power is so consolidated. Thank you!
Wow!
:)!
such depth Anna incrediblly detailed – masterly – xx Lib
Hard to look, yet harder to look away. Thanks so much Libithina.
oh my, this is a masterpiece… the horrifying images were carried along by the beautiful cadence, a juxtaposition that works just perfectly here. i tried to pick out favorite lines, but i cannot, it is all wonderful and heartbreaking all at once.
Wonderful and heartbreaking seems to be my current default setting. Thank you for following me into the dark spaces as well as the light. As an optimist I am ever hopeful we’ll keep the balance toward the good.
I think in man’s quest for immortality, we will eventually end up as a consciousness inside some type of automaton. We’re headed that way really, with nano technology about to really take off there is no end to what can be achieved. In some ways, I’d love to be around to see it all, in others, I dread to think of the awful experiments on animals and maybe even some ‘lost’ off the map, humans, taking place in secret laboratories trying to find answers to so many questions that the public would prevent from occurring if they were known. I know a lot of medical breakthroughs could never happen with experiments but, just as we accept our birth we need to accept our death too.
Really enjoyed this Anna, very deep and thought provoking (as you can see ) Lol
Yes, this seems to be the goal of the transhumanists. I hear you on the fascination and repulsion. Thank you for your thought provoking comment!
Raw nerve of mortality here when the remains of the dead begin the life of a commodity. Raw because it objectives that in capitalism we are commodities that believe we are free. Marx of alienation knew of out fate
It seems we’ve turned identity into a commodity as well with the advance of social media. It will be interesting to see how we view this period through the lens of history. Unfortunately I’ll never find out.
Powerful. The strong sounds of the words themselves pound the images home…the harshness of the reality. Well crafted and executed. Hard to read, but it speaks to our current experience well.
I love when the words can add that dimension to the subject. It was hard to write and yet felt necessary. Thank you very much, Joanne.
Anna, when I clicked “Like” it was with hesitation because of the chilling, dark, all-too-real subject of this poem. But your telling of it is so effective. Now, I’m off to the plastination site. Do I really want to go there?
Yikes!
Precisely! I’ve seen it up close in the BodyWorks exhibit that toured the US. A whole new level of nightmares arose.
So many affecting images and ideas so densely packed. Quite sinister here!
I sincerely hope I’ve gotten it out of my system :).
Anna, great and powerful lines.
Thanks ayala, I’ll be by soon!
Anna Montgomery. I have visions of a massive birthing clinic of idea, thought, expression. Destruction gives way to construction. Seeds die so they can grow and bloom. You write so I can live and believe in the power of process. U R my kind of kool.
Henry Clemmons, ‘you write so I can live and believe in the power of process’, is likely the most wonderful thing anyone has ever said to a writer. I don’t know what I’ve done to deserve being the poet to hear it but it will etch itself in that sacred space I reserve for the nurturing of my own creative process.
“renewable resources
(the marginalized and foreign)
nourishing the warmongers”
Damn, this hits hard. Excellent, thought-provoking work.
Thanks Mama Zen, sometimes it’s good to duel instead of spar :).
a riveting read anna . . .
it grips like a hungry thug!
I am partial to a pressure cooker piece 🙂
this puts the pedal down hard
from the get-go
and drives the reader forward
for fear the bomb might go
boom!
the only ting missin
is Sandy Bullock
and Neo’s great hair
pop quiz hot shot . . .
i feel the need . . .
the need
for
Speed (1 not 2)
Cracking lines . . . great title too 😀
I’m sure I’ve picked up some kitchen tips from you over the past year :D. Why simmer when you can shatter with liquid nitrogen? Need for Speed is also a racing game. Thanks, I am partial to the title.
Eeuww sounds just terrible! k .
But vivid. k.
True that :).
Your poem explicates dread, horror and so much that could come..I however have lived through so much that reflecting on how close to extinction we’ve been all my lifetime is equally terrible. I sat with two women who told me about the “shell shock” of their relatives who came back from WWI, and they themselves served during the blitz in London, knew friends who died in concentration camps when the world believed it was ending every day. Life has always required courage, Elizabeth I had men drawn and quartered on the streets of London. I can’t spend any more of my life dwelling on horror. Life has to be for love…or it is meaningless I believe.
So very true Gay.
An extraordinary piece Anna ~ it put me in mind of a visit to Auschwitz ~ an aweful place but part of our desperate heritage
I struggle to understand atrocities, to see the world as it is, not as I wish it to be. Sometimes it is necessary to go where I don’t want to travel and be confronted by the untenable.
Disturbing and intense writing…..agree with the earlier commenter life has to be for love….only we humans seem unable to get there somehow…
Yes, we seem to be incapable.
Bleak and powerful. This is painful to read and very intelligently written, a moving combination indeed. Very accomplished work.
Thank you, James, it is good to know my efforts were successful.
death of… oozes from each line
some lines you can feel others you can smell (glad you cant taste…)
Heavens! Me too. My NWCU post is here: http://chromatoids.com/2012/09/26/unauthorized-alteration-for-peace/ if that’s what you were looking for.
Haunting, Anna. This line keeps echoing in my head: “who threaded this needle?” Indeed.
Awesome, thanks Steve!
Very powerful n strong words… but true! I still feel the grinding effect in my mouth, how I felt while reading it!
Hugs xoxoxo
Grinding effect, that’s cool, like the words mirrored the machinations of the coroner’s team. Thanks Olivia :D, I look forward to reading your OLN offering!
Whew! This is a beast! Plastination……maybe something about the world becoming plasticised…embalmed…..I found this poem industrial and sobering , maybe a bit like the world we live in (if we let it turn out that way)…. Oh and I now know 39 new words….thanks! 🙂 🙂
😀 reintroducing the English language one poem at a time :D. Stu, great to see you, thanks so much for the visit.
One of the most interesting wiki articles I’ve read. Thanks for that, and the poem! Has this process been used in a horror flick yet? hmm…
I doubt it considering the cost, expertise, and time required. Though maybe they could shoot at one of the BodyWorlds exhibits. Glad you enjoyed the article, nice to meet you.