I Made This Anyway

I Made This Anyway

I was listening to 
a history podcast 
while I worked 
my factory job.
The subject was 
the life and crimes
of infamous Nazi doctor 
Josef Mengele. 
Whenever the hosts mentioned 
Hitler’s piece of shit book 
Mein Kampf”
they referred to it 
as his manifesto.
I thought that was
a pretty accurate 
way to describe it.
When it comes up
I usually call it 
the wack-ass book 
he wrote in prison.
I started to wonder 
if the word manifesto 
by definition means 
writing that is sinister. 
When I think
off the top of my head 
about examples of manifestos,
the first that comes to mind
is the Unabomber’s 
super boring manuscript 
about his contempt for society. 
His pathetic little attempt 
to justify putting bombs 
in the mail, 
and killing innocent people. 
Next I guess would be 
Elliot Rodger, the incel 
turned mass murderer. 
Did he actually even 
write a bullshit manifesto?
I think he might have 
just done whiny vlogs. 
Anyway my point is 
crazy criminals 
write their stupid stuff down 
and we call that
their manifesto, 
so it is a good word 
for “Mein Kampf.”
After work 
I pulled out my dictionary 
to see if a manifesto
is negative by definition, 
and I was surprised to learn 
that it is not. 
Manifestos don’t need 
to be evil.
That fact kind of 
throws a wrench into
this whole piece of rambling. 
If a manifesto 
always was defined 
as vitriolic writing
by these terrible humans, 
I was going to say 
we should change the word 
from “manifesto” to
“dumb-shit-stupid-scribblings.”

Fine. Swallow this chainsaw instead.

locked down and uninspired