Austin is a Special Ed Class

Damned
Doomend
Condemend

You can't even see it

The hubris on your face

Your lipstick made
of scrambled
eggs

You don't remember Red River,
do you

Never found the lightswitch
for the moon

Or scuffed your boots on neon

Stones with the pung

Krockers on the corner

I bet you don't even believe
in the levitating
reflecting

Pool anymore,

floating like a nightgown
above the neon,
gravel sea

You probably think you have the
right
to improve upon me
morally

To laugh at the birds who faceplant
into the brick wall you have
constructed

At the end of your dying,
dead-end street

The one-way road to hell

You have paved with the bones
of a once-thriving
culture

Thanks again for the unsolicited enlightenment
training at P. Terry's,
as though
the case for your own self-important
mediocrity
wasn't strong enough
already

Did you bring the atomic bum?

Did you drop him on the sidewalk?

Or was he in fact a piece of

Spiritual chewing gum,

Embedded there already?

I saw a fireball of pigeons
cursing the heavens
like a moron;

Was that him?

Or merely Satan?

Is he a member of your arsenal?

Your backup plan of aggressive victimhood?

Is he yet another projection of your
moralizing moral
cowardice

Posing like a mannequin in the
shopping mall

Of wannabe oppression?

Is he an officer in the army
of undead zombie
weeds?

It wasn't my business, but
since you brought it
up,

If you're worried about dangerous

Emissions rip your

Tongue out

I tried to find another
title for this
poem,

Because looking at pictures
of Special Ed students
fills me with

Sympathy and love,

And even if that wasn't the opposite
of how you make me
feel,

I don't want to insult those people.

They are innocent and beautiful.

You have nothing in common with them.

You are hateful, and will give account
for the smugness you
exude,

But I can't think of another title,
and sitting at the open mic
on Congress,

I felt like somebody with a street PhD
hanging out in the stuffed
animal section

Of the weakest mental

Thrift store in the world

It's unfortunate and sad,
and in fact against
my will

Because you are on the surface
beautiful,

But immediately below the clouds,
and the graveyards and the
trees you are a
nightmare

So,
out of respect and sympathy for the beautiful,
innocent souls who need a special
education,

Please accept my regret in advance
for not being able to think
of a better way to
put it;

The metaphor is neither strictly
accurate nor
pretty,

But Austin is a Special Ed class
pretending to be a
city

©2025 Nathan Payne