Hubris

Gun Battles: 2018

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“‘In the name of freedom, Christmas, and mom,/give every man a nuclear bomb,’/said Kip from a stump—’One man, one nuke!’/Kip still regrets not killing more gooks,/and he’s still ‘gun-ho’ as his friends used to say/behind the bulwarks of Cam Ranh Bay.”—Skip Eisiminger

Skip the B.S.

By Skip Eisiminger

“Gun Country,” an art installation made of 150 toy guns, by sculptor Michael Murphy.
“Gun Country,” an art installation made of 150 toy guns, by sculptor Michael Murphy. 

Sterling (Skip) EisimingerCLEMSON South Carolina—(Weekly Hubris)—May 2018—

Gun Battles: 2018
By Skip Eisiminger

“In the name of freedom, Christmas, and mom,
give every man a nuclear bomb,”

 said Kip from a stump—“One man, one nuke!”
Kip still regrets not killing more gooks,

and he’s still “gun-ho” as his friends used to say
behind the bulwarks of Cam Ranh Bay.

Now, Kip has bought a semi-automatic
to make his range calls more polychromatic.

To Kip, his AK-47
is all his cortex needs for a leaven.

His yard used to have too many squirrels
and an infestation of boys and girls

until he discharged a massive clip
overhead, in the dirt, and into his hip.

Whatever he hits, he ordains as prey
whether a black bear or just a blue jay.

Once, a Teflon slug went clean through a buck,
a Douglass fir, and his pickup truck,

but when the “Deep State” comes for his gun,
before they take him, Kip wants some fun.

Said Kip from a crouch behind bullet-proof glass,
“You can stick gun-control right up your ass!”

 

Note: Read more about sculptor Michael Murphy’s installation, “Gun Country,” here.

To order copies of Skip Eisiminger’s Letters to the Grandchildren (Clemson University Digital Press), click on the book cover below or contact: Center for Electronic and Digital Publishing, Strode Tower, Box 340522, Clemson SC 29634-0522. For Wordspinner: Mind-Boggling Games for Word Lovers, click on the book cover.

Skip Eisiminger's Letters to the Grandchildren

Wordspinner: Mind-Boggling Games for Word Lovers

 

Dr. Sterling (“Skip”) Eisiminger was born in Washington DC in 1941. The son of an Army officer, he traveled widely but often reluctantly with his family in the United States and Europe. After finishing a master’s degree at Auburn and taking a job at Clemson University in 1968, he promised himself that he would put down some deep roots. These roots now reach back through fifty years of Carolina clay. In 1974, Eisiminger received a Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina, where poet James Dickey “guided” his creative dissertation. His publications include Non-Prescription Medicine (poems), The Pleasures of Language: From Acropox to Word Clay (essays), Omi and the Christmas Candles (a children’s book), and Wordspinner (word games). He is married to the former Ingrid (“Omi”) Barmwater, a native of Germany, and is the proud father of a son, Shane, a daughter, Anja, and grandfather to four grandchildren, Edgar, Sterling, Spencer, and Lena. (Author Head Shot Augment: René Laanen.)

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