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Tribes and Totems
by quill Saturday, Feb 18 2012, 10:25am
international / poetry / post

practical needs
gave birth to magic
the first etched images
on cave walls
depicted beasts 'captured'
prior to the actual hunt

cave-dwelling inscribers
had killed the beast,
long before a spear had pierced its hide;
it was consequential, inevitable;
the soul of the beast belonged
to the hunter that magically rendered its essence
on a wall.

thus began a long tradition of art
and magic which survives today

today’s hunters
etch in text and image
their human prey
before the hunt --
the efficacy of the method verified
over thousands of years

criminal financial elites
constitute the prey;
bankers, servile politicians
and nefarious corporatists are
the quarry dispatched
by the skills of modern hunters

they are sung to death
by lyricists
brought to ground by
composers
paralysed by digital inscribers;
the method
proven effective over
aeons of time

tonight i use charcoal
on cartridge to depict
naked dancing nymphs
and priapic youths
celebrating over a kill --
images that ensure
the constant flow of power

another successful hunt
is anticipated for tomorrow
empty bellies
are no longer the prime concern
the tribe has been dispersed,
alienated one from the other,
the hunter returns them
to the safety of the circle
and slays the forces that disperse.

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