.

Historical Negation

A pen works wonders. Just ink in, scratch out.
Rewrite what people learn about the past.
Repeat false facts, promote a fabrication—
Voila! You’ve aced historical negation.
You don’t need to be truthful if you shout;
Plus changing history can be a blast.

Just snap your fingers, all at once you find:
America invented lies and slaves;
That World War Two was a misunderstanding;
That NASA falsified each lunar landing;
That Helen Keller wasn’t really blind;
And settlers never once were scalped by braves.

No dams have displaced peasants on the Yangtze;
That Albert Schweitzer was a white elitist;
Bin Laden merely searched for Paradise;
The Aztecs hated human sacrifice;
No artist has the skill and depth of Banksy;
And Winston Churchill was a rank defeatist.

Capote never once went on a bender;
DaVinci’s “Mona Lisa” is a fake;
That Truman was election-trounced by Dewey;
That Jimmy Hoffa lives—he’s in St. Louie;
Mark Twain and Charlotte Bronte were transgender;
And Shakespeare’s plays were wrought by Francis Drake.

Three-hundred fifty thousand Union soldiers
Did not give up their lives to free the slaves;
The Rosenbergs were patriots, not spies;
Obama merited his Nobel Prize;
That Newton never stood on giants’ shoulders;
And Broadway’s “Hamilton” deserved its raves.

A pen can change the past, scratch out, ink in;
For just as Pilate queried, “What is truth?”
But when you’re drunk on cancel culture lies
You soon become the hater you despise.
Each statue you demolish of Abe Lincoln
Creates a monument to John Wilkes Booth.

.

.

Bond Villain

Sit in my lap, sweet puss. I’ll rub your back
As once more I consider world dominion.
Like you, my feline friend, I shall attack
With stealth, a spectral source of world opinion!

The first move that I make shall be to seize
The Media. I’ll regulate what news
Gets covered or cold-shouldered as I please.
The masses shall think only what I choose.

I next shall poison Academia
By hiring only scholars who despise
The West, who’ll feast on children like a Lamia
And quash dissent while acting as my spies.

Next Parenthood shall fall into my grasp.
I’ll brainwash breeders. Conned and hypnotized,
Their views on gender poisoned like an asp,
They’ll cheer to have their children sterilized.

I think that Medicine should follow next
As smiling spectral agents use encryptions
To craft diseases till the mob’s so vexed
They’ll spend a fortune on my lab’s prescriptions.

And last, I’ll infiltrate each house of worship
By cutting faith apart just like a razor.
I’ll rain down woe like missiles from a warship,
And wreck more lives than would a moon-based laser!

My selfish puss. I’ve learned from you to revel
And treasure evil like a cold, hard gem.
I laugh out loud that some think I’m the devil
When I am just a normal man like them.

.

.

Brian Yapko is a lawyer who also writes poetry. He lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

NOTE TO READERS: If you enjoyed this poem or other content, please consider making a donation to the Society of Classical Poets.

The Society of Classical Poets does not endorse any views expressed in individual poems or commentary.


CODEC Stories:

27 Responses

  1. Roy Eugene Peterson

    These are great blasts at cancel culture and some of the methods these demons employ to revise history and create a new abnormal. You are able to plumb the depths of depravity, identify those who have falsely been targeted along with the undeserving like Obama, and do so in a wonderfully entertaining and exceptionally well written discourse in poetic form. I marvel at your ability and creativity while admiring your facility with the language for putting it into classic meter and rhyme with biting wit and wisdom!

    Reply
    • Brian A Yapko

      Thank you very much indeed, Roy. I agree fully with what you say regarding the demons who revise history and create a new abnormal. They can never be slammed enough — and I know we’re on the same page here! I’m glad you found the poems enjoyable!

      Reply
  2. Michael Pietrack

    What an exclamation point:

    Each statue you demolish of Abe Lincoln
    Creates a monument to John Wilkes Booth.

    Reply
    • Brian A Yapko

      Thank you very much, Michael! I’m especially glad you liked those last two lines. I thought of them first and actually built the poem around them.

      Reply
  3. Paul Erlandson

    Historical Negation is GREAT, Brian!

    Thanks for putting Banksy in there; he deserves to be skewered.

    And the juxtaposition of “Capote” and “Truman” was a nice dash of brilliance.

    Reply
    • Brian A Yapko

      Thank you so much, Paul! One of the things I love to do when I’m writing a poem is to throw in some little “Easter eggs.” Sometimes they’re overlooked, so I’m particularly pleased that you made that Truman Capote connection!

      Reply
  4. Cheryl Corey

    Your “Historical Negation” poem is terrific. I have no doubt that that you could have continued for countless more stanzas.

    Reply
    • Brian A Yapko

      Thank you so much, Cheryl! It’s true — I could have gone and on. My rough draft of this poem had many more historical tidbits I never used in the interests of brevity. If you or anyone else wants to chime in with some more examples, I’m all for it!

      Reply
  5. Susan Jarvis Bryant

    Brian, what lush linguistic treats to feast on… both chock full of crafty surprises. I particularly like the rhyme scheme of the marvellous ‘Historical Negation’ and the end rhymes employed in both poems are a lesson in how to… smoothly and stylishly. But oh, the message each carries – messages that can be heard loud and clear above all the poetic frills to sing sonorously of today’s ills. I love ‘Historical Negation’ but your ‘Bond Villain’ is my favorite. It tramples over Ian Fleming’s dastardly antagonists to reveal the villain to trump all villains, only this one exists and many are suffering as a consequence. The last line reminds me of that quote that goes something like – the greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he doesn’t exist.

    Brian, these two poems shine… they are honest, hugely entertaining, hilarious, and scary as hell! They’re a privilege to read. Very well done indeed!

    Reply
    • Brian A Yapko

      Thank you very much indeed, Susan! I’m delighted that you enjoyed both of these poems and I think I agree with you. I thought Historical Negation was the more important of the two and I’m glad Evan led with it. But I had such a fun time writing Bond Villain and picturing Blofeld and the evil agents of SPECTRE that it became my favorite of the two. It really is quite astonishing that we now inhabit a world where a Bond villain’s fantasies of world dominion are occurring right in front of us. Truth is stranger than fiction. And I’m especially pleased that you picked up on the echo of the Baudelaire quote: “The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.”

      Thank you very much, Susan, for your insights, your appreciation and, most of all, for your steadfast encouragement!

      Reply
  6. Joseph S. Salemi

    Brian, these two pieces really kick ass! The reader can feel the anger and fury emanating from them like steam from a geyser.

    The rhyme scheme (ABCCAB) in “Historical Negation” seemed strange at first, but then I realized that it served to focus the reader’s attention on the sheer outrageousness of all the lying, deceit, cancellation, and denial that inundate modern society. Simple couplets or quatrains, with immediately apprehensible rhymes, would have lulled readers and distracted them from paying full attention to the mendacity that is choking us. The rhymes are truly inspired (Yangtze – Banksy; Dewey – Louie; transgender – bender; ink in – Lincoln). I’m also glad you skewered those imbecilic and persistent anti-Stratfordians, who seem to be as ineradicable as herpes simplex.

    The speaker in “Bond Villain” is clearly Number One, the chief of SPECTRE. In the films his face is never seen — only his hands on his lap, fondling a pampered cat, or pressing a button to annihilate some unlucky operative (“This organization does not tolerate failure…”) But what you have done is to change him from a greed-driven master criminal into a politically correct globalist fanatic, a symbol of Schwab or Gates or Soros or any of the other murderous scumbags who now rule us.

    This is really excellent work.

    Reply
    • Brian A Yapko

      Thank you very much indeed, Joseph. I’m glad that you enjoyed both of these poems and your explanation of my Bond Villain is spot-on.

      I especially appreciate your detailed explanation concerning why I chose the unusual rhyme-scheme for Historical Negation. In a more impressionistic sense, I wanted the poem to have a bit of an off-kilter, fragmented quality to reflect history’s disruption. And, yes, it would have been easier to write simple quatrains with an ABAB scheme, but — at least in my mind — it would have given an impression of completeness and correctness that I wanted removed to reflect history fragmented and corrupted.

      Reply
  7. William Stevenson

    A fine poetic bringing to light of so much of the darkness that is settled upon us. Keep writing!
    William

    Reply
  8. William Stevenson

    The above comment was in applause of “Historical Negation”…I’m glad I read the next as well: “Bond Villain”. Great work. We need your voice! So much better than so much of what pablum passes for poetry these days. People once read poetry to hear truth expressed musically. You are reviving that practice.
    William

    Reply
    • Brian A Yapko

      Thank you very much, William, for these two comments. I’m certainly trying to call things as I see them and to do so in a way that is classically poetic. I’m grateful that you appreciate the effort!

      Reply
  9. Norma Pain

    Two extremely entertaining poems Brian, that hopefully will wake a few more people up to the numerous lies being spewed forth from those who have control of the money and the power. Thank you.

    Reply
    • Brian A Yapko

      Thank you so much, Norma! My wish is for my poems to be a kick in the pants to help people recognize what’s going on. And to be entertaining while I’m doing so. I don’t always succeed but I’m grateful for your appreciation!

      Reply
  10. Cynthia Erlandson

    Great stuff! “You soon become the hater you despise” is a fantastic summary of “Historical Negation! It really gets under my skin that we conservatives are considered the “haters” — yet, if we were to ask any of those who call us that, what they think of (for example) our 45th president, the first words out of their mouths would be, “I hate him.” I, too, love your clever rhymes, and rhyme schemes.

    Reply
    • Brian A Yapko

      Thank you very much, Cynthia! Yes, I find it incredibly annoying that conservatives are considered the haters when, as a member of more than one minority, I have personally been on the receiving end of hatred far more from people on the Left than on the Right. They equate acting like a responsible grown-up with intolerance just because we refuse to accept their social engineering fictions or otherwise fulfill their unreasonable wishes. It sometimes feels like being a parent trying to rein in entitled teenagers.

      Reply
  11. Margaret Coats

    These are my chime-ins.

    You did negate history by declaring Jimmy Hoffa to be alive and locatable. We know what happened to him, according to a longtime union leader, who heard from Hoffa’s driver that Jimmy’s body was placed in a car to be compacted and sent to Japan for recycling into Mitsubishis. But that means the Japanese, by now, have undoubtedly sent the decrepit car incorporating the remains to South America or Southeast Asia.

    However, I congratulate you on coming up with Drake as a contender for Shakespeare authorship. I myself worked at the now defunct Francis Bacon Library, where the authorship of anyone except the Stratfordian was gladly discussed at monthly roundtable meetings. It was a hive of determined negators, but no one before yourself ever championed Drake.

    Reply
    • Brian A Yapko

      Thanks for commenting, Margaret. Obviously most of what I described is outrageously untrue, so I was glad to skewer the anybody-but-Shakespeare contingents with an actual pirate (allowing for an exceedingly subtle nod to “Romeo and Ethel, the Pirate’s Daughter” — the first draft of “Romeo and Juliet” in “Shakespeare in Love”.
      Fascinating information on Jimmy Hoffa. I lived in Detroit when he disappeared and it was big news.

      Reply
  12. Joshua C. Frank

    Both are great, as usual!

    “Historical Negation:” You’ve described cancel culture very well. It’s a very interesting rhyme scheme, probably selected to showcase the chaos. The ease with which history can be bowdlerized has long since cast serious doubt for me on the narratives the culture has taught us our whole lives… but, of course, every alternative is just as biased. My favorite lines: “ Each statue you demolish of Abe Lincoln/Creates a monument to John Wilkes Booth.” That says it all!

    “Bond Villain:” It’s true, modern culture has done more damage than a Bond villain ever could. It reminds me of Michael Warren Davis writing in his book The Reactionary Mind that the invention of the automobile did a lot more damage to families, communities, and cultures than 100,000 Robespierres. The title is interesting because modern culture has broken a lot of those bonds. The worst part is that instead of looking to the hero, the people have joined the villain’s side, like in my poem about the video-game protagonist. My favorite lines: “I laugh out loud that some think I’m the devil/When I am just a normal man like them.” Of course, when a normal man is effectively a puppet by the devil, I’m not sure it makes a difference.

    Both of these are hard-hitting and give well-deserved hits to modern culture. Keep up the good work!

    Reply
    • Brian A Yapko

      Thank you very much indeed, Josh! I suppose it’s true that every interest group will put their own spin on history. But nonetheless, it is one thing to watch a play and apply biased interpretations of what occurs. It is an entirely different thing to deny that something occurred, or to put the spotlight on a member of the chorus and claim that it was the chorus member who was more important rather than the lead actors.

      Your discussion of “Bond” villain is so brilliant! I never considered the “broken bond” interpretation of the title! Thank you for that!

      Reply
  13. Yael

    I like how these two devil’s advocate poems follow in the footsteps of your recent poem about the Exodus, written from the viewpoint of Pharaoh’s soldier. You are really good at presenting topics from an unusual perspective, and exposing the humanity of the doomed who are traveling the wide and broadly popular way, without coming across as preachy or judgmental. Your poems contain enough food for thought that they may nourish the famished brains of some lost souls who may stumble upon them and who may reverse course as a result.

    Reply
    • Brian A Yapko

      Yael, I’m so honored by this comment — thank you! I do love presenting things from unusual perspectives because it helps to shine a light on the truth of what is happening. And truth is often a very nuanced thing. I do hope my work and the work of others here at SCP give people pause and helps them to think for themselves.

      Reply
  14. C.B. Anderson

    I’m not sure which poem I found more chilling, but I may be in for some troubled dreams tonight.

    Reply
    • Brian A Yapko

      I hope a sardonic laugh accompanied the chills, C.B.! I realize that these poems don’t exactly spread sunshine around, but I think it’s important to address the dreadful implications of the foolish and even nefarious actions many decision-makers in our society are taking. I myself have nightmares about this stuff. While I’m awake!

      Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

Captcha loading...

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.