the ozymandias parade

(for the nancy & ed keinholz concept tableau sculpture)
[after shelley]

leaders:
you rear & rot
trumpeting our might (?)
unsaddled by greed & technology;
button-fingered, red-handed, rampant, erect
dangling from the belly of doom, chancres

mounted on peasants & stallion grease
frozen, mirrored, hellbent
mounted on triumph of a resin-spattered
kind
a parade disemboweled
screwed bitser battalions
roustabouts & roundabout
the heat
of your red/white & blue a pervasive decay
faint overlay creeps into the nose
of horrified transfixed righteous
observer, a flag-whipped hooray
a dead horse day.

tinpot your pompous orchestra
corrodes. alors, a bell disintegrates
sound degenerates, flayed
the tattered
aussie flag flaps in your
fan-slung wind
my pen borrowed from the guard
marches on

in this live shell
the wars of all ages unwind
their litanies. profane initiations
demand the murders of strangers
in different-coloured uniforms
rearing into the dreams
of corporal corporeal
corpse

...who goes there?

you are all of these and more
beloved son, dear daughter.
you are vaporised
a trail of reality
shimmering between the buttons
of your uniforms

boxing day 2005
sydney, museum of contemporary art

last revised May 13 2006