He became King of England in 1761,
a sickly young man
from German stock.
He charged taxes
to the English
who were trying to set up camp
in a new country
across the sea, soon to be called America.
The Americans,
as the history books tell us,
eventually refused;
and then other colonies followed;
and soon the King lost control.
He couldn’t get over the fact
that they’d stepped over his authority.
He was naïve.
He didn’t realize,
by asking these rebellious Englishman
to pay him taxes, he was insulting their courage.
These people,
these soon-to-be Americans
had found a new world.
They’d endured months at sea.
They’d endured sickness and death
and native Indian hostility
and attacks.
They’d endured blizzards
and frost bite and total starvation.
They had pioneered their way into establishing
an entirely new way of living,
realizing what it felt like to be free,
roaming on a land
savage
as the charging buffalo;
and yet this King,
foolish like a father
telling his son what to do
after he’d moved out of the house
surviving on his own for years,
decided to try and lay down the whip
by taxing for tea
and other bullshit items
the Americans had already figured out
how to acquire on their own.
And so the American Revolution began
while King George
suffered from a hereditary disease
called porphyria, which causes
an insufficient production of hemoglobin.
He couldn’t stand too long in the sun.
He had port-wine-colored skin.
He had paralysis in his arms and legs.
He had interruptions of nerve impulses,
which caused him psychiatric problems.
Almost ten years, from 1811-1820,
his insanity progressed.
He spent his time in isolation,
often in straight jackets
and behind bars in his private
apartments at Windsor Castle.
He was a crazed, debilitated soul.
His craziness is a symbol of Europe’s naïve attempt
to control an uncivilized world.
His craziness
is now the craziness
of America, 250 years later.
You can see him
in the eyes of a man in a suit
while he walks across the human aquarium
of Times Square.
You can see his craziness in an oil tycoon.
You can see his craziness in almost every President
of the United States.
You can see his craziness teaching history
in Long Beach, California.
You can see his craziness in a dentist’s smile.
You can see his craziness in India and China
and Russia and where ever the dollar is passed
from hand to hand.
Please, someone finally take the crown
off this fucker’s head
and call him
for what he truly is: . . .
a diseased
and greedy
little boy.
