Sparrow
Movie Stars

All movie stars are modeled on Jesus and Mary.

Guys wearing camouflage are always conspicuous.

Pigs can be excellent pets but are terrible friends.

Loud music, I find, makes me introspective.

Children love the circus, but for the wrong reasons.

Capitalism is a dance which requires new shoes.

 

Jesus and Mary often removed their shoes.

Guys wearing camouflage invoke the Virgin Mary.

Pigs watch television for the wrong reasons.

Loud music makes a boombox suddenly conspicuous.

A “good child” is one who is introspective.

Capitalism gradually depresses all your friends.

 

All movie stars have other movie stars for friends.

Guys wearing camouflage wear plain black shoes.

Pigs, after a meal of slop, grow deeply introspective.

Loud music gives one visions of Jesus and Mary.

Children at the circus have no urge to be conspicuous.

Capitalism is entertaining for the wrong reasons.

 

Jesus and Mary loved their enemies for the wrong reasons.

Guys wearing camouflage have militaristic friends.

Pigs in purple flannel underwear are conspicuous.

Loud music allowed Peter Frampton to buy new shoes.

Children pray unhesitatingly to Jesus and Mary.

Capitalism bemuses scholars and the introspective.

 

All movie stars, while sitting on the toilet, are introspective.

Guys wearing camouflage buy new guns for a reason.

Pigs will have sex next to a statue of the Virgin Mary.

Loud music, at a party, makes it difficult to speak with friends.

Children enjoy drawing with magic marker on their shoes.

Capitalism is at once subtle, brutal and conspicuous.

 

Jesus and Mary attempted to be inconspicuous.

Guys in camouflage, deep in the woods, grow introspective.

Pigs enjoy chewing on Manolo Blahnik shoes.

Loud music gradually destroys the capacity for reason.

Children invent secret languages with their friends.

Capitalism markets lovely statues of Jesus and Mary.

 

All movie stars, when they visit a circus, feel conspicuous.

Guys in camouflage and black shoes tell their friends:

“The reason I’m introspective is… I’m praying to Mary!”

 
Found In Volume 43, No. 02
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Sparrow
About the Author

Sparrow’s poetry has appeared in The New Yorker, The QuarterlyThe New York Times and many other journals. He was featured in the PBS series The United States of Poetry and can be heard, along with his band Foamola, on the poetry compilation Poemfone: New Word Order(Tomato). He is a gossip columnist for the Phoenicia Times, a contributing editor to Chronogram, a substitute teacher, and the author of three books: Yes, You ARE a Revolutionary! Plus Seven Other Books, America: A Prophecy,  and Republican Like Me (Soft Skull Press). Sparrow lives with his wife and daughter in the hamlet of Phoenicia, New York, in the Catskill Mountains.