C-Note

A Poem by Andy Ray

Capitalism is

capture, colonialism, and kingdom

corruption, K-shaped economies, and calorie exchange

constitutional, competition, capital gains

contract law, corporate boards, and rising copays

congress, courts, a conflict ready executive

creosote cancer and petrochem processing

coastal erosion through quantified calculus

and

Cul-de-sac castles full of pre-K wobblers

college rankings traded like currency

credits and debits in neat spreadsheet columns

the common vernacular, the calling of the climb—CLIMB—

the constancy of crawling over

containers of rhetoric conditional

on our continued compliance we now call

CONSENSUS

and

Christ—there is a lot of Christ—but not

the one you are thinking of

(compassion-for-the-crapped-on Christ)

this is combat Christ

weaponized Christ

constant-apocalypse-Christ

co-opted-king-Christ with tech-bro-cronies

he’s ICE Christ baby

Capitalized and put back into Christmas

reclined in a manger at City Hall

where we wait in a line that stretches around the block,

with offerings

so many offerings.