Santa with a Bloody Knife
No one knows when
we have entered the age
of statuesque expressionism---
for blood soaked battle ground,
primitive festivity or abstract
slang of arts . . . sometimes
the most powerful comes
from the under represented,
the underdogs who are hung
like neon lights---the celebration
of commercial carnivals.
At every shopping mall
Santa is dressed to kill.
Every kid cries to sit on his lap,
touch his white plastic beard
while tiresome mothers secretly
guard their over-drawn Debit.
Santa promises to bring
whatever the little one wants---
Teddy bears, trains and guns . . .
The new common-ancestor
with bags of useless gadgets
for the dye-gone, X-generation.
We have seen everything---
It is cool to be religious
and money wise.
The most terrible fate
is to be white and poor
at the same time!
The father, who was a kid once
sitting with the laid-off Santa long ago,
swears to cut the crap.
Can no longer stand the nausea
when seeing millions of Barbies
showing boobs and a perfect butt!
“But who makes the bucks?
The fake crap makes me sick!”
The father, a former art student
now a middle-aged banker, grunts.
He pulls up sleeves to make
his own Santa:
A murder with a perverse grin
behind the snow-white hair
cutting the throat of a blond
Barbie with spiky nipples and
whorish blue eyes . . . The best
portrait of another eventful year
from a fed-up middle-class tax-payer.
+
Z.Z. Dec. 2005
影云
Love it!!! Original, ironical, and thought-provoking!!!
Santa - - - commercialized
Digitized, un-fairytaled
…
Dream-breaker
A merciless robber with a smiling face
…
What is the invisible hand behind all of these?
. . .
thanks for the eye-opening poem!!!
知凡:
人们在做很多事情的时候,常常不问为什么要这样做。。。跟随大溜。。。
我在商场里看到排着队和“Santa”照相的人群也觉得分外傻气。。。为什么要这样?。。。
“...The fake crap makes me sick!”
商业不仅利用了Santa,还利用着人性的弱点,影响着人们的“审美”,使生活越来越没有生活质量,“...seeing millions of Barbies/showing boobs and a perfect butt!”.....Santa带给人的是些无用的小玩意儿,“The new common-ancestor/with bags of useless gadgets/for the dye-gone, X-generation.”.....渐渐地很多人也养成了小玩意儿式的品味。。。
不知不觉,“No one knows when/we have entered the age/of statuesque expressionism---...”。。。
很喜欢诗中的深刻的思考,“We have seen everything---”。。。
最后一幅肖像画,出乎意料的讽刺,令人深思。。。
唤醒,唤醒麻木。。。
ltg:
thanks!
this poem was actually inspired by a real event --- in the city where i live, someone made a Santa holding a blood-dripping knife with Barbie doll on his side, her throat was cut open....
:)
i thought that guy who made it is very brave in a middle-class neighborhood...
Peace!