An Explication of 'Punk Pantoum'

Our society lives in a disconnect.

As Noam Chomsky would say, we are becoming obsessed with consumerism, capitalism. 'Punk Pantoum' is a commentary on that disconnect, and what it does to a life.

In this poem, we hear the speaker, asking a lover to commit suicide with him. The speaker comes from a wealthy background and was raised in a place of fine horses, elegance, prestige. However, he connects the place he lives in with 'rats, a severed fetlock, muscle, bone and hooves'. He sees that artificiality in those who feel comfortable in capital success. However, 'there's a new song' for the speaker and his lover. A new release, escape from the disconnected world. Like many youth in the world today, the speaker and his lover have turned to 'cutting' to find focus in an artificial world, to feel real pain. "Blood jewels" are enticing to him, because unlike shiny, cold jewels, these ones are real, require pain to create, and were once part of someone. The 'new song', or solution, to their situation is to commit suicide together. The speaker mentions his lovers 'final bruise', after death, she can have no more bruises. With a razor, they plan to create tracks more real than those raced on and bet over by the wealthy.