THE CAMPAIGN AGAINST INDECENCY IN OUR TIME

By Rodney Jones

There's a red pubic hair in the Jell-O salad at the church picnic.
There's a realtor with misophonia spooning okra from a cup
Across from a beard with false teeth clacking at an ear of corn.
There's a boy putting on lipstick and a skirt in the women's restroom.

There's a big third grader screaming fuck at an assistant principal.
And this is why, like expired milk poured to lighten coffee,
All over America adults are pouring into homes and city halls
And chat rooms on the internet to express their concerns:

Drag queens are reading Julián Is a Mermaid to kindergarteners,
Mad Tard Liberals are approaching to confiscate their guns.
Warnings flow from coach to pastor like hundred dollar bills.
There's a red pubic hair in the Jell-O salad at the church picnic.

And the red hair is not an apocalyptic symbol, only it is here
Like a scraggly cedar on a distant hill. It is not unnatural,
And if someone amazed to be talking to a guest from Spokane
Forgets and swallows, it is protein, it will not kill them.

But aren't paranoiacs who mean to do good by hiding books
From children sad? Like real dogs barking at television dogs,
They cannot help barking-- even the governor of Florida.
There's a boy putting on lipstick and a skirt in the women's restroom.

There's a big third grader screaming fuck at an assistant principal.
Drag queens are reading Julián Is a Mermaid to kindergarteners.
Six naked cheerleaders are twerking in the graveyard at midnight.
There's a red pubic hair in the Jell-O salad at the church picnic.

Rodney Jones's new book, THE BODY AND THE END OF TIME, POEMS SELECTED AND NEW, 1985-2025, is forthcoming in 2026 from Louisiana State University Press. He has won the National Book Critic Circle Award and the Kingsley Tufts award, and his poems have been selected for ten editions of THE BEST AMERICAN POEMS.