The Mean Game by John Wall Barger

Author:John Wall Barger
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Palimpsest Press
Published: 2019-03-15T00:00:00+00:00

Swarm

Before I meet Angelinia,

the celebrated artist,

my anguish is barbed wire

I am trapped inside.

She shows me the breach.

She is a genius.

I work for her. Welding,

cleaning, painting.

Anything. I obey every prompt,

swallow every pill.

My days have meaning.

I’m vital, she says,

to her process. One Monday

the top of her to-do list

says, “BEST PERFORMANCE EVER!”

I complete it, as usual,

to perfection. At midnight

I enter her bedroom

by the fire escape.

When I’m sure she’s asleep

I open the brown bag

marked “SWARM.” Moths fly out.

Moths spread in a fog,

darkening the walls, windows

&, finally, Angelinia’s face

—like a mask of petals,

black petals, plague buboes.

She chokes, dies.

What it means

I don’t know. I forget Angelinia.

I move to a tropical

island. The villagers,

called Blengins, accept me.

They’re special.

They’re small, like dolls.

A full-grown Blengin man

could curl asleep

in your cupped palm.

Their village exists

on one coconut a day.

I swim the green sea.

I eat coconuts.

I live years in harmony

with the Blengins.

One morning as I wake

they are shouting,

pointing at the sea.

I yawn, rub my eyes.

Blengin-sized creatures

are diving out

of coconut shell canoes,

storming the shore.

“Glandelinians! Glandelinians!”

They circle the village,

burning Blengin huts.

I climb a tree.

Glandelinian warriors

pour into the jungle

in black raven wings, howling,

murdering Blengins,

burning all in their path.

When they spot me

they grow quiet.

Two chiefs confer,

standing on the corpses

of the Blengins.

One whispers an order.

The army marches

up the tree, toward me.

The base darkens

with their bodies,

like some grotesque flower

blossoming.

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