Anthropobscenity by Straight Panic

An·thro·po·cene - /ˈanTHrəpəˌsēn/
noun
the current geological age, viewed as the period during which human activity has been the dominant influence on climate and the environment.

Ob·scen·i·ty - /əbˈsenədē/
noun
the state or quality of being offensive or disgusting by accepted standards of morality and decency; obscene behavior, language, or images.

Written and recorded October thru December 2019, which seems like a lifetime ago. Iran and America were rattling sabers while 80% of Australia was on fire—cue the Mad Max jokes, comparisons, late night talk show skits. Had Burroughs' nightmare of the virus of language finally manifested itself here, now? Community transmission. "Realize the real truth." The Wild Boys no longer a countercultural screed of revenge fantasy onanism, now a Twitter feed from Rojava, the newest cause du jour of the digital SJW vanguard. I never anticipated March 2020 when I sneered "epidemic spread" into my military-surplus microphone, but here we are, facing
down the uncertainevitabilities of the Postmodern condition.
Lockdown. Quarantine. Social Distancing. A tape loop on repeat; replicating itself with each cycle, which extends and malforms, unfolding in perverse dialectic fractals; the offensive or disgusting (by accepted standards of morality) state or quality of being indicative of the current geological age, during which human activity has been the dominant influence on climate and the environment. Anthropobscenity.

The Obscenity of the Anthropocene

Fever dreams and rage fantasies; porno spoofs and erotic fanfiction. Cassandra, drunk on pneuma but still dismissed as a fearmongerer, a pessimist, a real downer bitch. "Thomas was right" was a bad inside joke amongst the staff of one of the restaurant kitchens I used to work in. I've never wanted to be so wrong, so badly. Let this be a worst-case scenario, and not a trailer on next season's For Your Consideration reel.

I met a traveller from an antique land,
Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal, these words appear:
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.”
— Ozymandias, Percy Bysse Shelley (1818)

"The Wild Boys"
Insurrection rising
Epidemic spread
When autumn weather turns leaves to flame
The end of history shattered
Cut-up boarding house mirror
Overgrown cracked pavement
Dry skin in pooled mercury
Frog croaks in silence
A silent army
Sleeper cells
Unmarked cemetery
Anonymity of wooded fields
and penny arcade peep shows
Indigenous uprising
Pandemic spread to Capitalism's discontented sons
Foreign legion fraternité
A second-generation breeding program
Platoons raised away from the face of womankind
Roses intertwined
Dew marked petals
Stiff members ejaculate into empty air
conjuring spirits from the night
Hydrogen bombs split atoms
leave time out of joint
Silver-grey translucence
A face projected upon a face
Eyes peer through dead eyes
As darkness falls upon ruined suburbs

"Extinction Index"
…, Golden Toad, Sri Lankan Shrub Frog, Harlequin Toad, Yunnan Lake Newt, Eskimo Curlew,
Blackfin Cisco, Blue Walleye, Pyrenean Ibex, Western Black Rhinoceros, Scimitar Oryx,
Yangtze River Dolphin, Wondiwoi Tree-Kangaroo, Kouprey, Telefomin Cuscus, Central Rock
Rat, Bouvier's Red Colobus, San Quintin Kangaroo Rat, Cuban Ivory-Billed Woodpecker,
Bachmann's Warbler, Imperial Woodpecker, Rabbs' Fringe-Limbed Tree Frog, Alberca
Silverside, Catarina Pupfish, ...

"Premature Accelerationist Ejaculation"
When the last woman went sterile
womb turned outward
texture of tanned hide
there was rutting in the streets
lit by flames of burning buildings,
a choir of mourners—
professional and amateur—
ringing through alleys and boulevards
When the final infant
was confirmed stillborn
we set off the rockets,
gorgeous stiff, nuclear phalli
beautiful paramount fireworks
for the final denouement to come
When food turned to famine,
we swallowed seed
When rains dried to dust
we drank piss and sweat and blood
and fucked what was left
of the old world to death

"Degenerate Mutation"
Young mutant boy,
found him in the ruins
Skin, alabaster smooth and ruby red
All scars and radiation burns
Three fingers on the left-hand
Seven fingers on the right
Ice blue eyes watching from the rubble
or some semblance of now rotten DNA
compels him
The last frayed strand of mammalian instinct
Sterile from the radiation
But also disease free
Diphallic and mute
No reason not to fuck
Two walking corpses, banging together
like pieces of flint in shadowy rubble
Blood-flecked spittle on cartographic flesh
Black semen between my fingers
There's no reason to speak
There's nothing left to say

deathbed.xxx