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Bentham's Calculus | Poem

 
 

Benthams’ Calculus
 
I offer a defiant variation: 

“Berlin has placed mankind 
under the governance of two 
equally insane masters, 
the criminal larva, and crocodile ecstasy,” 

I endeavor to enchant your mind 
with a new systematic etiquette 
beyond your ethography 

what does the eunuch know of pleasure? 
what does the masochist not know of pain? 

The collective bestial awareness 
a mentality cut-off from meaning 

beyond cyanide reflection 
beyond temporal bone 

Spasmodic writhing 
pestilential influence 
from Chicago to East London, 
and coffers of erectile teeth, 
the bankers of fantasia— 

the calculative eye 
a poetic flinch, 

pyramid froth 
of trench warfare, 

incandescent gases 
of Valhalla, 

secret society 
of the common leech, 

needles in 
vertical position, 

these variations I offer, 
as a salute to creativity 
beyond a bipolar understanding 
of human existence, 

repeating decimals 
are rhino droppings 
in mathematical mind, 

and I am a soybean, 
beyond pleasure and pain.


- Jonathan Witherspoon Huey

to Jonathan      to Moongate