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Stephen Oliver - The Great Repression

Well Versed is edited by Jody Porter

The Great Repression
Stephen Oliver

Somehow, we must come up with schemes
to make money in these hard times, move sideways.
Maybe we need a new Economic Model, like an

installation set in a large space we can all look at.
Hidden speakers would boom, boom with coda,
counting down the steps to capitalistic Armageddon.

This would be such a device as would rival the
water clocks of ancient times—a new wonder!
There would be giant monitors set like deflector

shields from above refracting images of historical
import. Pictures of CEOs dressed in loincloths,
begging. Captain Cook reassembled as John Wayne.

Dusky Maidens seducing five star generals.
The Voice of Doom counting down the days of
the eternal week we dream we are forever trapped in.

T-Shirts on sale. Postcards & prints. See the show.
Buy the DVD. “THE GREAT REPRESSION”
coming to the disintegration of a family near you.

 

Stephen Oliver is the author of 17 volumes of poetry and currently lives in New Zealand. His long narrative poem, Intercolonial, was published by Puriri Press in 2013, and he has work forthcoming in Ghost Fishing: An Eco-Justice Poetry Anthology, edited by Melissa Tuckey, University of Georgia Press, 2016.

Well Versed is edited by Jody Porter – wveditor@gmail.com
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