Tyranny: A Confession

The seed of it—when my father died, who spanked me

once and I never forgot it, but known for his kindness,

and perished young, his handsomeness upended like

a basket of peafowl eggs, and the seed of it—advent

of packaged bread, birth of Little Debbie snack cakes,

pipeline, zebra mussel, suspension bridge that spanned

the aching waters, ornery squeak of Martin Seuss's swivel

rocker, first elementary school named after a colonial

madman, Hugh Hefner, his smoking jacket, blonde twins,

silicone, spectacle: first elephant on film, first filmed lunatic,