A multi-media artist living near Washington, DC, Jeff Bagato produces poetry and prose as well as electronic music and glitch video. Some of his poetry and visuals have appeared in Empty Mirror, Futures Trading, Otoliths, Gold Wake Live, H&, The New Post-Literate, and Midnight Lane Boutique. Some short fiction has appeared in Gobbet and Horror Sleaze Trash. He has published nineteen books, all available through the usual online markets, including Savage Magic (poetry) and Kill Claus! (fiction). A blog about his writing and publishing efforts can be found at http://jeffbagato.com.

The Second Hand of God is a Beautiful Foot

Leave shit behind to walk
on its own two feet, because
when P.T. said a sucker
is born every minute
he underestimated the population
explosion, and now we gotta laugh
our way out of the fiery furnace,
where fitting a foot god never made
into the oil-based shoe of the madman
and setting the leg on fire is the show
The Show stopped to see, sole arching
like the second sex, never getting
angry enough to strip down to the naked
engine with god unplugged
and ready to do what comes natural,
baby, ready to write you
into his devil's notebook—
cause all recoil like cold testicle
from the pagan drum of the fashion-
free, rhythm of bare blood, when
the shape of a fat ankle takes
the proscenium with a spear in full
regalia, hoping the lead will call
in sick,
             smirking like hand
puppets on a tabletop—
but if god is unemployed, what
chance do we stand, here on
feet pulped into cordovan leather
for another holy name we dare
not abandon?