Tom Hardy as Bane Comments on The National’s “Conversation 16,” by J. Bradley

Why are the children in trouble? Darkness
demonstrated far better parenting
than who’s behind these baritone bleatings.
Whispering miserable things, such regress

an infection. We have ways to burn such fat,
my brothers. You never leave the city
until it is in ashes, meaning spat
back in the faces of silver girls. See

you know nothing of black dreams, how dinner
sours in the radiance of your doubts.
Eat her brains because she is a sinner;
ovens are perfect to muffle your shouts.

Only when you have given her a divorce,
then you shall have my permission to die.

J. Bradley is the author of The Adventures of Jesus Christ, Boy Detective (Pelekinesis, 2016) and the Yelp review prose poem collection Pick How You Will Revise A Memory (Robocup Press, 2016). He lives at jbradleywrites.com.