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Book Titles
  PURITAN SPECTACLE by ROBERT STRONG  
 

Puritan Spectacle
Robert Strong
1-932418-17-2
$14.00
©2006

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Robert Strong lives north of the Adirondack wilderness with his wife and infant son. He received a Ph.D. n creative writing from the University of Denver and an MFA from Naropa University; hs undergraduate work was done in the Faith, Peace & Justice Program at Boston College. He is the editor of The Autumn House Anthology of American Spiritual Poetry (Autumn House 2007) and an assistant professor at SUNY Canton.
     


from Puritan Spectacle

Big Mac Sacrament

Then Lord, let this egress of meat from its moon-like borders
do more to Americanize me.
O slushy soft things between my teeth, lend me citizenship.
             ~our passport to a thousand happy islands

O easy mastications of the new millenium, can you
hand me more of that.
             ~yes, pretty please, yes

DriveThru girl, DriveThru girl
all headbound in electric bondage, whisper thru me
the crackling intercom.
             ~O yeah, we DO want fries with that,
                                                          we do, O yeah

Learn me the true intent of every
clinging sesame seed.
             ~bowed down to & bitten
             ~bowed down to

O taste of breadsoft integument tearing.
O fat fiscal feast and flared nostrils.
             ~red, perfectly repeated in small packages
             ~red, perfectly repeated

Humid inhalations of an incalescence beyond
mere barnyard.
             ~pasteurized salve of efficient flavor,
                                                          soothe our souls

Thy starvelings of Uttar Pradesh love much brighter
reds and yellows, they hold this ground flesh holy.
             ~content our insides with its consistent life-paste
             ~content our insides

Thy veg-heads of Boulder C-O hold it apocalyptic,
fearful of their own inner meat, their own drippy ketchups.
             ~O perfectly repeating red
             ~repeating red

Thy birds & bees luffing about on ultraviolet draw
to all arching reds & yellows, inside
the orange tells their internal modems to fly
with your message.
             ~O Iowa City Iowa, do feed us
             ~Feed us, O Cedar Rapids, do