Hats Off, Gentlemen
By Jack Cade
- 1077 reads
Hats off to Fate
Who would have dealt me this instant
Somehow, no matter how I chose to play
Hats off, harlots and charlatans
Remove your noble bottletops
Hurl out no more gestures or expressions
Let me imagine the winged monstrosities
whose slits peer wild from beneath pert brims
Let me see if I can't contort, deform
the image of a man
Hats off, gentile,
Reveal thy scalp in all its
vast, uncompromising ugliness
for the sake of entertainment
Even though you wore them
for the sake of entertainment
Don't be too attached to your clothes
Embarrassment is far more holy
Hats off, ramparts and mannequins
gamesters and quacksalvers
Let us learn to love your disfigurements
Catalogue each mole and every hump
Throw off the orchestrated delusion
What you call beauty
I call farce
What you call well-dressed
I call concealment
What you call indecent
I find attractive
I shall say so again
Hats off, my friends
my enemies too - the war must seem fair
when it's written down
What you call immoral
is only undesirable
What we call idiocy
is sophistication unmasked
We strain against an idiotic nature
I have given in to paranoia
The salesmen in your peaked helmets
oil their palms in glee
You too find the devil a voluptuous beast
You too are seduced by an order
when you get the uniform
and I get the star
Now I wear the uniform of poet
I've got the boots
and I'm ransacking your hats
for trinkets of shame
Forgive me if I shiver with delight
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