Suite: Machine of Civilization
written by: Pablo Cúzco
@thetaois
I
it’s a big machine
this civilization
gears turn
governments
shape society’s
collapse
II
I flashed horror
at the dance at the morgue
sacks of flesh torn and wobbled
bent lopsided smothered
by the ancient “ahor”
I swallowed my screams
and recited Wolfe’s mantras
while clown pranksters
told incoherent jokes
by the light of
acid washed
campfires
III
the conjured
reality of Harari’s
Sapiens made fire
invented the wheel
sought shelter
in the rocks
invoked God
found Buddha
sitting under
a tree
IV
south
west
central
a white glow
of feathery stars
darken a swirling
van Gogh sky
a coyote dances
teasing scorpions
spins dust trails
nips and snarls
teeth bared
in dog
play
V
artifacts
in deserted dwellings
of pueblos at Four Corners
the Inca in Machu Picchu
Khmer of Angkor Wat
and Easter Island
Moai suffered
climate change
VI
industrial
revolution’s
infinite orgy
of energy—gasoline
powered weed trimmers
coal-fired suburban
steam punk
technology
force
survivors
to migrate—
dwell in mud huts
watch African sunsets
under thatched roofs
row Polynesian
longboats
on opal
seas
NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR:
“Ahor” is a word I picked up from teenage New Yorkers while visiting Queens. When they described a terrifying experience, they would exclaim something to the effect of “I had a horror!” with a heavy New York accent. “I had aha-rah.” It is a term coined by Ken Kesey’s Merry Pranksters when describing to Tom Wolfe, the author of The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, the fear one might feel imagining being buried alive while tripping on LSD. Ahor, with a New York flair.
My using the term is no accident, as the section of the suite that contains it is a reference to the 60s and the Merry Pranksters.
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