Altered State

Michelangelo’s David wisps in smoke
da Vinci’s Mona Lisa vacates her frame
Georgia O’Keeffe’s calla lilies zephyr
Gershwin’s Rockies and Gibraltar
tumble and crumble, the Nile evaporates
in little dust devils while the Sahara rises
to cirrus clouds, Beethoven’s Fifth
titillates stone ears, only mutes pronounce
English properly, iron eyes watch
the Vargas Brothers Circus, Emily Post’s
Etiquette vanishes to undisclosed locations
in the Library of Congress, ink from
our Bill of Rights melts off the page, stars
and stripes abandon Old Glory. I am lost
in a Mad Max world, in Tom Hobbes’
nasty, brutish, short life and you’re gone.