Caitlin’s Newsletter

Share this post

Headless Hounds

www.caitlinjohnst.one

Discover more from Caitlin’s Newsletter

Articles, poems, stories and thoughts by Caitlin Johnstone and Tim Foley. Everything published here will always remain free to read.
Over 36,000 subscribers
Continue reading
Sign in

Headless Hounds

Caitlin Johnstone
May 9, 2023
121
Share this post

Headless Hounds

www.caitlinjohnst.one
45
Share

Listen to a reading of "Headless Hounds" (reading by Tim Foley):

Headless hounds from Boston Dynamics.
Headless hounds from Raytheon.
Headless hounds in our nightmares huddled shivering under US flags
beneath a night sky whose stars were replaced by satellites and drones.

Headless hounds dashing voicelessly past buzzsigns flashing BUY BUY BUY
and buzzscreens shouting FEAR FEAR FEAR,
past the harmless homeless and overdosing angels,
past the skyscraper soul siphons and sane street schizophrenics,
past roadkill dreamguides and the freeway beasts who feed on them,
past suburban window watchers with opiate eyes,
past the cheering liberals who proudly support their hunt
(they make empire automatons of all sorts you know).

In this land we worship headless gods,
gods with logos instead of faces,
gods with quarterly statements instead of minds,
gods with profit margins instead of conscience,
gods who are legally required to act without morality,
gods who devour unthinkingly and destroy unfeelingly,
gods who eat ecosystems and shit suffering,
our gods have no heads and now neither do their soldiers.

We lurch headlessly, mindlessly, heartlessly, unconsciously
toward wherever it is we are going
like robots running a program written by a long-dead man
for reasons nobody can remember.
Headless hounds where our rights should be.
Headless hounds where our heads should be.

On an old wooden fencepost there sits a large crow.
It looks you in the eye
and stares without moving,
and just as you find yourself growing restless and uncomfortable,
you remember something ancient.
Something intimate.
Something that has more relevance to you
than any thought you've ever had.

You sit here, you and the crow,
and you remember where you came from.

_________________

_________________

_________________

Caitlin’s Newsletter is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

My work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece please consider sharing it around, throwing some money into my tip jar on Patreon, Paypal, or Substack, buying an issue of my monthly zine, and following me on Facebook, Twitter, Soundcloud or YouTube. If you want to read more you can buy my books. The best way to make sure you see the stuff I publish is to subscribe to the mailing list for at my website or on Substack, which will get you an email notification for everything I publish. Everyone, racist platforms excluded, has my permission to republish, use or translate any part of this work (or anything else I’ve written) in any way they like free of charge. For more info on who I am, where I stand, and what I’m trying to do with this platform, click here. All works co-authored with my husband Tim Foley.

Bitcoin donations:1Ac7PCQXoQoLA9Sh8fhAgiU3PHA2EX5Zm2

121
Share this post

Headless Hounds

www.caitlinjohnst.one
45
Share
Previous
Next
45 Comments
Share this discussion

Headless Hounds

www.caitlinjohnst.one
forceOfHabit
May 9

A sacred scream of sanity in this crazy, mixed-up world. Thank you.

Expand full comment
Reply
Share
Fran
May 9

Thank you for seeing what is, the willingness to look, the ray of sanity

Expand full comment
Reply
Share
43 more comments...
Top
New
Community

No posts

Ready for more?

© 2023 Caitlin Johnstone
Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice
Start WritingGet the app
Substack is the home for great writing