EDITOR'S PICKS
David Shapiro's Pick:
rock me amadeus
by Rebecca Maslen
This poem was intensely personal, but at the same time a stinging commentary on modern life. I liked the writer's audaciously fresh voice and command of the language. The writing had a wild quality, but never lost control.
rock me amadeus. rock me hard, all night long. rock it til the break of dawn. rock me gently to sleep, but when the bough breaks it's all over. down comes the party, dj and all.
the party's over. no more lesbian strippers making out topless on howard stern. no more hummers in the white house. no more skyline in new york. no more extreme right wing talk radio. no more feel good democrats. no more freedom of choice. no more privacy. no more united states of america.
U.S.A. US.A. USA. usa. usah. user of drugs. use the drink. use the smoke. use the prescriptions. use the 300 channels. get through the workweek. abuse the weed. abuse the coke. abuse the illegal and legal. get through saturday night fever. use the wife. abuse the husband. use the kids. abuse the dog. the sunday of rest drifts into the monday commute.
commute. commune. committee. common ground. the same ground that shifts beneath my feet, cracks open, swallows me whole before the tidal wave comes to obliterate the evidence. evidence of life. evidence of love. evidence of good and evil. evidence of rich and poor. evidence of disparity. evidence of commonality. evidence of me. evidence of you.
you shook me all night long. you rock my world. you're the meaning in my life. you're the inspiration. then you come and you go. i come and i go. they come and they go. we come and we go. you go and i come. i come and they go. they go and i go. i go and you come. you come and you go. you go and they come. they come and i come. i come and you come. you come and they go. we go and go and come and come.
come back to the five and dime, jimmy dean. come back young and beautiful and dangerous. come and see what you left behind. what we left behind. the innocence. the light. the covering up. the slow teasing reveal. the kiss and tell. the thoughts. the feelings. the insides. the guts.
it's all out there now. your sex. my abortion. his viagra. her breast implants. your abuse. my perversions. his steroids. her food obsessions. your hurt. my inadequacies. his weakness. her defeat. our fear. our pettiness. our loneliness. our world. a world of trouble, taken from us, crumpled up and thrown away. so rock me amadeus. rock me into that Good Night.
Rebecca Maslen has been a retail manager, a lab technician in an allergy cilinic, an adult content webmaster, a graphic/web designer for an independent wrestling company and a professional student. She just completed her M.F.A. in Creative Writing at Rosemont College, is currently a technology teacher at a Philadelphia community center and is working on a novel about the independent wrestling scene, where her husband makes his living.
Copyright 2006, Rebecca Maslen