Normies

By Gene Lass

Tell me what to think

Tell me what to say

Tell me what to wear today

Tell me what to watch

Tell me what to hear

Tell me if I should drink this brand of beer

I’m a normie

An empty vessel for you
I’m a normie
Tell me what to do

When I’m online

Tell me what to share
Tell me who to talk to
Tell me why I care

Help me pick my friends
The algorithm is plain to see
Tell me who should govern me

’Cause I’m a normie
I don’t want to read
I’m a normie
Your will fills all my needs

CARRION

By Gene Lass

In the sky above our parking lot

Buzzards circle

Riding on updrafts

Never flapping

Stacked in layers

One above the other

Like platters

I long thought they were hawks

Eagles

Something majestic

Until I spotted them on the ground

One or two

Hunched on power lines

A gang of them

By the stop sign on the corner

Ugly and black

Avian thugs

Now, they hover over me

As I walk to the car

I watch in wonder

Then curse them for their mockery

I’m 54

Newly unemployed

But goddammit

I’m not dead yet

The road again

By Gene Lass

On the concourse
All aboard
Pack the cattle in

Call us up
Row by row
Pack the cattle in

Screaming babies
All around
Pack the cattle in

Concourse agent
Can’t be heard
Pack the cattle in

The smell of sweet-sour chicken hits me
On our no-meal flight
Pack the cattle in

It’s the passenger ahead of me
Chomping teriyaki jerky
Like it’s his cud

Here the cattle are.