Global warming vs. Texas
Where belief stumbles is faced
in technocracies of abundant
density holed up in innumerable
brains where it weighs down
lighter elements with ponderous
observations and largely concealed
weapons designed to equalize
any errant discriminations
democracy has failed to render
into products worthy of weekly
attention and extreme acts of attenuated
credit. Tenuous atmospheres
leave vision fixated in singular
messes, lone stars burning brightly
over parched stretches of desiccated
ground where half a billion trees
take a right to the kisser
floors them for the count, the rest
left staggering while Texas, dancing
back and forth over skewed limbs
announces its intention
to execute all remaining evasions
of self-administered lobotomy
procedures to protect and preserve
legitimate archonic aspects
yielding molecular rearrangements
of visionary materials into shop
windows lavishly outfitted
with genuine imitations
of identical jackets or boots
designed to generate real
outbursts of lollapalooza
shit kicking and other enthusiastic
patriotisms. It’s a hell
of a country and no indications
to the contrary can produce
vision beyond super-sized
satisfaction’s gaudy projections
of temperature controlled four hour
erections stabilizing the drive
home. The drive home doesn’t like
global warming either, but it doesn’t
hit it. It does complain
about the weather which Texas
finds subversive. The Alamo
then shows up, confused about its
contextual significance, but always
game for a slugfest with whoever
is around. Remembering it
is not it, and perhaps that’s why
global warming is laid out amid
limbs of all those forgotten
trees. Remembering leads
to sudden ejaculations of manhood
the sticky kind spontaneously
remembering correctly positioned
Last Stands and other tableaus of pumped
up vacuity hungry for a fight
with anything moves with great
affection. After all, oceans do rise
from time to time and need to be slapped
down just to show them who’s boss
around here. Around here quavers at thought
of more feats of engineering prowess
extending into its flows and quietly
leaves through the back door taking
global warming with her
into dank alley’s storied egress.
Michael Boughn’s poem "Global Warming vs. Texas" is characterized by its surreal and metaphorical language, drawing connections between climate change, consumer culture, toxic masculinity, and human responses to environmental challenges.
The poem opens with a critique on climate change denial, toxic masculinity, and consumer culture, referencing the 2011 Texas drought that killed half a billion trees. This highlights Texas's denial of climate change, while linking violence and toxic masculinity to the climate crisis. As well, "Archonic aspects" refers to the Gnostic concept of Archons as guardians of the lower levels of the cosmos where souls of light have been trapped in darkness and are held captive. Bob Marley refers to a similar situation: “By the rivers of Babylon / Where we sat down / and there we wept / when we remembered Zion,” connecting consumer culture to larger cosmological struggles.
At times, the poem ridicules the cultural obsession with male virility through drugs and implants and connects toxic masculinity to sexual release through the myth of male sacrifice in colonial conquest. It humorously questions the idea that engineers can fix any mess humans create and playfully personifies abstract concepts like "the drive home." It introduces unrelated elements like the Alamo, linking it to the patriarchal myth of male sacrifice.
Boughn’s whimsical use of wordplay advances the narrative and creates an atmosphere rife with dark irony, complexity, and tension within these themes. Reminiscent of film noir, it concludes with a sense of departure, suggesting that global warming leaves through the back door, perhaps referencing the grim reality that environmental issues are often ignored and neglected.