Monthly Review | heaven is a place on earth


let’s build a place!

let’s build a place,
like all the other places.

with tall buildings,
like all the other places with tall buildings,

and crowded streets,
like all the other places with tall buildings,
and crowded streets.

let’s build a place,
with high rent,

like all the other places with tall buildings,
and crowded streets,
and high rent.

let’s put the poor on the street!

like in all the other places with the tall buildings,
and the crowded streets,
and the high rent,

they put the poor on the street.

let’s put the poor on the street!

that’s how you stop people from being poor in the first place.

they’ll get a job.

oh!

let’s build a place with jobs!

they can go in the tall buildings,

like they have in all the other places with the jobs in the tall buildings,
and the crowded streets,
and the high rent,
and someone begging on the sidewalk while you go to work,

and cops.

let’s build a place with fine dining, gold crusted hors d’oeuvres,
and wine from some other place that is kind of like this place.

kind of like the ones they have in all the other places that are like this place,
with the jobs and the restaurants in tall buildings,
and the crowded streets,
and the high rent,
and someone starving on the sidewalk while you go to dinner,

and cops.
lots of cops.

let’s build a place with luxury condos,
that the rich can come visit,
occasionally,
or sell,
for a profit.

those can go in the tall buildings too!

like how they are in all the other places that are like this place,
with the jobs and restaurants and luxury condos in tall buildings,
and the crowded streets,
and the high rent,
and someone passed out on the sidewalk while you go to bed,

and cops.
lots and lots of cops.

let’s build a place,
with politicians,
and leaders.

like they have in all the other places that are like this place,
with the jobs and restaurants and luxury condos in tall buildings,
and the crowded streets,
and the high rent,
and someone passed out on the sidewalk while you go to work,

and cops.
lots and lots and lots of cops.

those places have politicians and leaders.
it’s nice because they can reassure people:

the buildings are natural,
the traffic is minimal,
the rent is reasonable,
that person wasn’t dead on the sidewalk,

the food is filling,
the views are to die for,

and

we
need
more
cops.

arson is an anonymous poet.


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