“When the Focus Group Calls the Republican Candidate …” by Corrina Bain

Corrina Bain

WHEN THE FOCUS GROUP CALLS THE REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE “MUCH MORE HUMAN, TODAY” AND “LIKABLE”

You may not know this, so let me tell you
there is a genre of pornography
characterized by monster cocks
generally sculptural forms in latex
which are puppeted around
the lower bodies of male actors.

There is, as you can imagine, a racial element.

There is, as you can imagine,
a hidden device with a bladder
containing a glut of white viscous fluid.
Special effect. Adapted technology.

And never mind that the quote-unquote cocks
can’t fit inside of anyone. The point
is to imagine that there could be such a monolith.
And then to make some framework
where the false thing is proved true.
So when you say that he seems “human”

what I hear is the girl bent and splayed
like folded stationary gasping into the camcorder,
“Ooh, it’s so warm.”

Warm is not an adjective
I have ever heard
describing a legitimate penis
though it is often true.

I am saying, the only reason
you would mention it
is if you were trying
to fool someone.

from Rattle #40, Summer 2013

__________

Corrina Bain: “When I was a kid, listening to Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, I thought that art was going to give meaning to my pain. Then I got it stuck in reverse for several years, making pain to weight my art. So I’m trying now to un-afflict myself. Or maybe to bring the reader down with me, depending on the day.” (website)

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