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by Michael Cooper

pursuant to labor
code 4600 our patient-worker
self procured medical assistance for her burns
due to significant neglect on the part of her primary
treating physician (she hugged unto her screams
for 3 hours
while the gunshot  victims moved
forward in the queue at county luckily we
proved that her employer
was uninsured so we
may get paid
by the state of California
it hurt—the grease fire
treated with water
hissing thru the fry basket there is an inverse relationship
between the size of the company((and the representation it can afford
and the minimum wage
earner that exposes them to threat
and the projected outcome of our patient is substantially shifted to the adverse when they
are language impaired it hurt when the welts rose like a black sun
over the burning earth
of her gentle neck her
second and third finger fusing and fuck you
bandages over mouths
disclaimers and pursuant to indulged
classes and the shifting
of the Horatio Alger it hurt
climbing even here in Yet-
tem, population 211
where the Jack in the
Crack is the only. Shit
What do you know about minimum wage your honor what do you know

about rage

about 10 dollar blow jobs and how to get by sure I’ll take mine
with extra pickles and sauce please pull forward to the second
window it hurt to look in her eyes and know
that at 19 and pregnant with mine                            no rest will come
through the blisters of her spreading cherrytree
because she sleeps on her back with her eyes open anyways pursuant to labor
codes of we are tired of being fucked over by people we can’t reach for further comment and bottom
line men who have worked under golden arches for 40 years (objection!  not once behind the counter!)
for 40 years(objection never cleaning makeshift brownpaper tampons left in the rest
for 40 (objection ((overuled
(( objection never once did he drive out a sunstroked hungry man, palsy stricken into the night
only to have him steal a diner’s purse (((overuled(ob(overuled!!!!only to be treated by
a knife held by overruled a pursuant or a physician objection it hurt and no one came.
Pursuant to LC be a human being   !Overruled

O FICTIVE KINSHIP

by Michael Cooper

what can I lay claim to?  The Who
Steppenwolf, the mighty Led Zeppelin who lifted
from the black delta the appearance of a soul
shrieking, Valhalla, Carcinogens,
my aviation
maintenance wings—what sings
of 100% casualty rate per 26 missions over the European theatre when
we used pressurized hoses to swab the 8th air force out
of their planes—when congressmen who look like me spit
Seussian rhymes
to deliver anti-American dreams—two towers
fall
does not justify the murder of 21,221 insurgents
or 151,000 civilians depending on the census
you choose to follow—and how many distant
brothers and sisters of Abraham lay
face down overnight, ziptied into prayer position?  How
to be
this white man
so angry at angry white men.
Its all of us, we are not wind
up toys
we the co
buyers we
the co
borrowers of
the 725 Tactical load
Tomahawk
missiles shot into Iraq—purchased
at a cost of 1.45 million dollars
a peace—that’s one
billion, eighty seven point
five
million mis-
appropriated dollars used to steal
lives—that could have been
saturated
with kindness and education

I am understand
ably disappointed with my un
representation in a government that supports
unpopular wars  in defenseless
regions of the world.  My government who,
was only happy when it installed two new
(temporary, unnecessary)
suns over a voiceless Japan.
am I un
patriot now.