Zeitgeist Spam: So long, Sean. A few lines of yours to see you out … w/love

So long, Sean. A few lines of yours to see you out … w/love

in the final years of birds
don’t remember the dead
resemble then / reassemble them

Posted at 11:58 AM | Permalink

Zeitgeist Spam: I hven’t been making poetry and this is why

I hven’t been making poetry and this is why

I know, my reach should exceed my grasp, blah, blah, but I can’t even reach these days. I would love to be able to go all Sean Bonney and talk about suns falling into the otherwise burning freezing streets, etc etc, but I’ll leave that to Sean, he does it better than I ever could. I have friends who find ways to turn bad energy into good (here’s looking at you, Richard), but not me, I can’t. I’m just sick. I’ll just say this.

These last weeks, with DACA rescinded, another attempt to leave tens of millions without healthcare, especially women, the basic ignoring of Puerto Rico and the Virgins Islands, two US colonies (we still have colonies people), and then that -is there an insulting term that I can apply strictly to one person without insulting others?- Trump and his attack on black people who do NOT like being murdered speaking up about it, followed by the massive cowardly response of the NFL teams who refused to take a knee, the amazingly cowardly response of fans who refused to take a knee … because it would insult the vets and the flag (more on which on the next paragraph), well, I have no words. As for why I don’t leave this country if I hate it so much, well, I hate every other country, too. I love many people, but I hate the human race. I hate it.

OK. The whole flag and vets thing. The accusation of disrespecting the flag and veterans is the current equivalent of the accusation of disrespecting white women that got Emmett Till and so many others killed. Anyone, black or white or any other color, who thinks that this is about the flag or who feels the need to say something nice about this country, or about veterans, is, knowingly or not, a white supremacist, or at least filling the role of one. Period. I don’t care who you are and what your background is. This has as much to do with all that shit as Emmett Till’s death had to do with white women. This is another way of killing black men. Uppity ones, as the expression went. And excusing the deaths of any others who might die at the hands of the police. This is not about you, vets, and you know it, but to the degree you think it is, you might as well be wearing a KKK hood.

The attempt to shift the discussion to black on black crime, whether Jim Brown does it or anyone else, is another fall into that same white supremacist logic.

It all makes me sick.

And … if I hear one more word about the veterans who gave their all defending our freedoms, not that that’s relevant to anything, I’ll puke. Not one vet has died defending our freedoms since I was born, and that was 1950. Those who have died have died defending or extending our capitalist empire, period. There has not been one war for our freedoms in all that time. Everything else is a lie. I will explain this to anyone too stupid or should I say ignorant to understand me. Does that mean we don’t have enemies, no it doesn’t. Our enemies also want empires. Whether they be jihadis, whether they be Russians, whether they be Chinese … etc etc … name an enemy. Every fucking country wants to rule others. Our vets are either conscripts who joined because of poverty or the absence of choices, or pure mercenaries. As for the former, I feel some sympathy, as for the latter, none. Sorry. You took money to kill people. Were you lied to and tricked into thinking that was ok? Probably. For chrissakes, learn to THINK.

I make my poems to save the world. I don’t want to save it. Today I root for global warming. I have no words for poetry. I’ve taken up weaving. Maybe I’ll write again, or collage again, if I can figure out how to channel this rage.

Posted at 09:11 AM in Current Affairs | Permalink