Jackie Sheeler

LT. MACHINE

He neither smiles nor frowns, the attack
passionless, casual

imprecise.
When casting scarlet clouds at motionless targets

precision is superfluous.
Vicinity, proximity,

downwind: sufficient.
He makes a second pass across the line

just in case. Filling in the blanks, you might say.
He neither smiles nor frowns,

flourishes the canister
arms-length, like a cardsharp shooting his cuffs

before the deal. Winning is inevitable.
If he smiled.

If one tooth
glinted under the rusty bush of his mustache.

If his eyes narrowed or his plump
chest heaved,

if he screamed
I got your education right here you little pricks!

while all hell spurted out the silver cannon dangling
from his long blue sleeve,

he might appear to be alive.
But no. Silent, he neither smiles nor frowns.


Jackie's video for "Lt. Machine":



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Jackie confesses: Anonymous made me do it. When they posted that piker's six-figure salary and home address online, I looked at his beautiful house on Google maps, sent him a pizza and started to write. Or. Well. Maybe it wasn't Anonymous. It was the memes. Yes, definitely, the memes. He pepper-sprayed the Last Supper! And the holy bush of Marilyn Monroe, her white skirt airlifted by a passing subway. Entrapment. I had no choice. Guilty as charged.

JACKIE SHEELER's latest collection, Earthquake Came to Harlem, was a finalist for the 2011 Paterson Poetry Prize. She is presently working on a memoir, teaching in prison, and occupying Wall Street.