FALL
2019
KIOSK 61
PARADISE LOST
Caroline Shaw Ceiling Stories, 2019
Kneel by David Punter [for Colin Kaepernick]
Not simple, this kneeling business; It’s all very well to say it disrespects the flag, Or it represents a history of black subservience, Or that somewhere in there is a religious gesture (But one knee, not two, not exactly a prayer), Or looking on ahead, how many of these Grand, huge players will contract Arthritis and, when the time comes, Never kneel again?
For me, the question is what will we kneel for? Not to nod in obeisance,
Never to kneel, never to show contrition
Or demonstrate the athletic skill required
Is bad for the soul, I don’t doubt that,
In yoga, where self-mastery is all,
As is the destruction of the self before false icons,
Or bare our backs against the inevitable whip,
And we must never succumb
Or worship God Almighty
To that other myth, that straight-backed
Who seems so pitifully out of tune
We can stand stiff before all life’s discomforts,
With our present pressing needs,
The way of empire, always upright,
Swathed bodies, babies carried out of hope.
Toujours gai – twirl the moustache, Call for another sundowner.
What would I kneel for? I’ve not knelt in years, not willingly, Or even half-effectively. But still I have a sense That these vastly overpaid Footballers, inclining their trained bodies, Renouncing some measure of approbation They’ve realised they deeply Do not desire, are more worthy of my kneeling Than their masters in so-called Christendom.
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