Five Poems
Joshua Zelesnick
an odyssey, in arcade years,
lasts all night, a video game
is just a death, avatars trapped
in the afterlife bear witness
to the bells and chimes of an
outmoded form this dream
of infinite lives, friends, feelings
that burst out like a pinball
around a loop, sirens, screeching
brakes, motors, the shrill of fighter
jets locking in, I’m bewitched
by memory on a spinning track
maybe we’re all just time soldiers
aiming our guns with eight-way
rotary joysticks, walking
in one direction, while shooting
in another, we re-enter
the portal until we arrive
at the correct time period,
THE AGE OF WAR, and out we pop
to shoot our enemies along
a scrolling backdrop, but this
can’t be LIFE, unlimited
on all levels, except the last
the difference between death and
video games is lives left, or
how many fantasies do the drone
victims have left, this level
begins and ends with a target
is my name, see my i.d. says
TARGET a silhouette before
trial, the joystick vibrates
through the clouds, the order
YOU’RE CLEARED TO FIRE, but what if
voices leaving an arcade, mega
pixels picking okra in a field
to build an arcade is simple
lungs, fabricated engines, time
capsule inside children, line up
over your target and drop
a bouquet of bombs when they hit
yell, SPLASH and the bodies
blow, parts of the whole next level
of forgiveness, like where’s the secret
whistle that skips me ahead, how
many lives do I have left, if
we stay here all night how much
would it cost to beat the whole game
we’ve come a long way since SPACEWAR!
since DUCK HUNT, since BATTLEZONE and DOOM
first-person shooters have been funded
by the pentagon since WW II
the crowd stands to honor fallen heroes
brought to you by RAYTHEON, guiding
missiles to the heart since 1948
you hear that thump, you know you’re alive
soldier player 1, soldier player 2
this trailer shoots down aircraft with microwaves!
when the prisoner looks up at the flag
all he sees is a dead body