Drone

DRONE comprises a suite of fourteen poems (chants) reflecting upon the social progress of humanity. Our continued emphasis on a global economy rather than a global community anchors us to a narrow set of uninspired constructs. These conservative fabrications largely ignore empirical evidence that suggests there may be better humanizing alternatives to the current polarizing and adversarial systems to which we cling.

As we consider ourselves to be the loftiest mammal in the highest Order of Primates I chose to evolve the poems (chants) around that specific word: ‘primate’. The challenge was to employ a majority of words in the English language that rhyme with ‘primate’ without using any of them more than once throughout the suite.

To increase the sense of a prolonged primitive chant the poems are minimalist in structure. The pounding tetrameter cadence is meant to imply the reiteration of a heartbeat: du-duh, du-duh, du-duh, du duh…

Ideally, it’s intended these poems be spoken aloud as one continuous chant.