Ken DiMaggio

I’M JUST ANOTHER FACELESS MANNEQUIN TRYING TO FIT INTO THE CORPORATION.

I’m just another faceless mannequin trying

to fit into the corporation I’m just one more

piece of plastic at the whims of greedy

capitalists I’m just easily disposable which

is why I am so prone to taking an

assault rifle to the playground or consuming

large amounts of alcohol

I’m just one of a million

faceless mannequins

and lately I have been

a bad one

So abuse me I want to return

to my Plexiglas behavior modifying

corporate cubicle humble harass and

make a vicious example out of

me ‘cause it ain’t no fun as just a

mannequin alone smoking crack in front

of the latest Third World genocide

shown on the TV

I’m just too depressed

to change the channel

I have no motivation

to click the remote for something

pornographic and shallow

please please please

I promise to always smile and make

sure that the inside of my polythene head

stays hollow

just let me come back to

the community of the cubicle labyrinth

where at five o’clock each

day every plastic head looks up

in a state of lobotomized idiocy

and apocalyptic terror because once

we stop making profits for

the Chief Executive Officer who

gets to be human the rest of us

who are not have to go back to

a life which can never be fulfilled

because outside of smoking crack or

making some Board of Directors an

unjustified billions dollars what else

are you supposed to do when

you are a plastic dummy

But fear not

the corporation hasn’t

forgotten about that

no need to fret

just turn on the television open

up your wallet marry a

silicone partner and punch out a few

Day Glo empty children and

you will have a corporate family

leisure and lifestyle

Don’t cut me off

I can’t become a drug

addict alone

Let me come back to my

module

I promise I will be an

emptiness for my children

and wife so that they too will seek

solace in private acts of

self destruction when they are not

occupied in making obscenely

huge amounts of money for your

corporation

And so hi My name is Ken and I used

to be a human being Hi and while

I was one I never got farther than

the humiliation of a temporary worker

on the asbestos removal crew and the closest

I ever got to a woman was feeding

half of my minimum wage pay check

to the lap dancer with electrified

dilated eyes hi and since it just has not

been working as a creature who feels

his pain as well as others is why I have

decided to chuck all that sensitive

and soulful stuff and become

a mannequin

So hi My name is Ken Ken

the mannequin Ken who doesn’t feel

a thing because he is made out of

petroleum Ken who has suddenly

become popular now that he has

jetted all those books and

theories and issues that left him with

a conscience Ken who now thinks a six by

six milky white square is the coolest

thing to work in if you cannot be a brutal

Central American machete-wielding

banana plantation overseer Ken who

has enough within that is hollow to fit

all those infomercials and soft core

pornographic situation comedies Ken

who is now running to the shopping

mall or the sleazy part of town to

see a snuff film um ah Ken

who now has to be taken back

to the factory

But I’ll be back as quick as you can

say vacuous and plastic I’m going

to be there Monday morning maybe

with a different color paint on my

hair but I will still have

the same lobotomy blank face along with

an AC/DC outlet in the back of my

head

because this

time I promise

This time

I will succeed

This time

it will be you

and not me

sitting

silently

self destructing

until you vanish

like the horror

on your television

--the terror

that will never again paralyze

conscious less plastic