The Agenda of a Yawn

Image courtesy of Wikipedia

The Agenda of a Yawn

I'll tell you why I burn like black powder

and not like a candle;

I'll tell you why I prefer running shoes

and not sandles;

I'll speak to my lack of attention span –

music to the ears of a patient man;

I'll show you a billion stars in a verse

of infrared light;

I'll show you the words at the break of dawn

you can only hear at night;

I'll tell you why that I am a poet:

(the agenda of a yawn)

to be as deep as sleep

just not as long.

  

How Hacker Activists Are Risking Jail for Everyone’s Right to Internet Freedom « Censorship in America

How Hacker Activists Are Risking Jail for Everyone’s Right to Internet Freedom « Censorship in America

Bad Dog

"Cerberus" by William Blake
Image courtesy of Wikipedia

Bad Dog

The noble dog performs his trick

by the good, gray dullness of the eyes.

Even after they took his balls,

he would chase the stick

into the breath of an EF5 tornado

if it were his master's will.

He embodied the best quality

of the wolf:

The singular passion for the kill.

But for the sake of a scratch

behind the ears, a meal, and

a place by the fire –

only a “good dog” settles with

the limitations of his master.

BBC News - Greece protest against austerity package turns violent

BBC News - Greece protest against austerity package turns violent

Monsanto trying to take over world seed supply, nation by nation

Monsanto trying to take over world seed supply, nation by nation

Animism

Image by Craig Boehman

Animism

I'm a devotee

to animism,

when I weed,

it's spiritualism.

Evil spirits claim

fertile soil;

they fester and grow,

I sweat and toil.

Although strong spirits

inhabit my gloves

that posses my fingers

no dandelion loves:

there are limits to

a pulling prayer.

BBC News - Egon Schiele cityscape sells for a record £24.7m

BBC News - Egon Schiele cityscape sells for a record £24.7m

The Bullshit Beat: How Empire Blurs the Distinction Between Party Lines

Image courtesy of Wikipedia

"The message will go all over the world, the message will go to Moammar Gadhafi, the message will go to our NATO allies, the message will go to every nation of the world that America does not keep faith with its allies."

--Representative Steny Hoyer of Maryland, number 2 House Democrat, on the House resolution debate to fund the Libyan War.

===

A Republican couldn't have said it better. This losing-face-with-the-world is the rallying cry of the American politician, a cheap appeal to the electorate advertising the party's undying patriotism in light of possible funding conflicts for yet another bullshit American war. Why beat around the Bush? Obama is no different than his predecessor when it comes to the politics of empire.

The United States, certainly in the view of its general population, would not regard the US as an empire. Facts do not factor in with their assessments: The US is the single most powerful nation on the planet; the US is the single most wealthy nation on the planet (even if this wealth is concentrated in the hands of but a few); the US is currently engaged in three wars, and occupies Iraq and Afghanistan outright – thousands of miles away from her own borders; and the US controls trade to the point where most peoples' lives are negatively affected in some way by the dubiously favorable conditions granted member bankers and corporations under charters of the IMF and World Bank – all in the name of capitalism and free trade and to the benefit of American corporations that enjoy huge tax breaks (some do not pay taxes at all) and massive bailouts at the expense of American taxpayers in times of fiscal irresponsibility.

This being said, the people of Egypt, fresh on the heels of revolution, have decided wisely to not get entangled in a loan from the IMF because as a correspondent from the BBC reports of the popular sentiment there: “...many Egyptians were unhappy, feeling it was a betrayal of the protest movement that had denounced the IMF as a tool of imperialism...” The concept of America as empire isn't a tough one to grasp when your president has been receiving billions of dollars each year in military aid from the US in order to control you and to ensure that its despotic policies kept democracy buried deep in the Valley of the Kings as a curio for an archeologist's thesis paper a thousand years in the future.

It isn't as important to distinguish America as an empire than to realize that what we think of today as empires, such as the British Empire or the Spanish Empire, resembles many of the “imperial” features consistent with the powers of defacto empire as portrayed in history textbooks. The product of American exceptionalism has been the proverbial Mcdonalds Happy Meal for many American children since birth – with the patriotic guidance of preachers, teachers (give 'em a break though, they're just teaching what's laid out in front of them), and Corporate America. Look no further for the reason why many Americans are very much incapable of analysis when they walk around with flag poles protruding proud and loud from their posteriors. There is tenfold depth to the irony of the patriot's battle cry, “America rules!”

As Americans continue to distance themselves from the Democrat and Republican Parties in opinion polls, it is crucial for any democratic “rule of the people” movement to recognize that in order for real democracy to work in a land mass as large as the United States and for the benefit of all – not just for the elites – that the laws that enable corporate tyranny need to be abolished, and the laws that do not exist to curb corporate power need to be rooted firmly within the institutions of government, Constitutionally, as a terrifying scourge of 300 million warts to deface and defeat once and for all the fascists and corporate bullies that currently enjoy unchallenged authority in these United Sates.

War, Peace and Obama’s Nobel -- In These Times

War, Peace and Obama’s Nobel -- In These Times

An Aesthetic

Image courtesy of Wikipedia
Shane MacGowan

An Aesthetic 


I like beautiful things that come
from ugly people.
Don't show me sugar 
and define for me its sweetness.
The ugliest Irishman in Ireland
is Shane MacGowan;
the worst voice in Ireland
is Shane MacGowan's;
and apart from the grit he croons and slurs and spits
from between his few loyal teeth,
there are ballads there that would attract
honeybees to shit.

Outlaw

Public domain image courtesy of Wikipedia
Horse thief hanging, Oregon, 1900

Outlaw


I bathe in a nineteenth century tub
Where piranas and pariahs circle
The still-born dreams of the American
Frontier. Are you following me? Do I
Fear you? Your laws have made me an Outlaw
And I won't pose for the hangman's canvas
(All naked men hang the same in bubbles).
Shucks, I will wait you out, Judge. Revolvers
Within arm's reach to blaze like typewriters
If your posse's symbols can sustain them
Tracking my horse through desert scars and strikes. 
Coyote taught me how to make friction
Lightning by rubbing two creeds together:
Your land, my backhouse; your sky, my brothel.


Listen to "Outlaw" here

Former CIA Agent Glenn Carle Reveals Bush Admin Effort to Smear War Critic Juan Cole

Former CIA Agent Glenn Carle Reveals Bush Admin Effort to Smear War Critic Juan Cole

300,000 Protest in Barcelona - Link TV News

300,000 Protest in Barcelona - Link TV News

Inside the Accountants' Playbook - Video Library - The New York Times

Inside the Accountants' Playbook - Video Library - The New York Times

Overworked America: 12 Charts that Will Make Your Blood Boil | Mother Jones

Overworked America: 12 Charts that Will Make Your Blood Boil | Mother Jones

Poetry With An Edge: The Acerbic Wit Of Alan Dugan : NPR

Poetry With An Edge: The Acerbic Wit Of Alan Dugan : NPR

Over 100 000 in Spain protests -- NationNews Barbados -- Local, Regional and International News -- nationnews.com

Over 100 000 in Spain protests -- NationNews Barbados -- Local, Regional and International News -- nationnews.com

Grapefruit Juice

Image by Craig Boehman

Grapefruit Juice

Look no further for the truth

than the juice of a 

grapefruit.

Its sweet and sour notes mazed

behind opinioned spit.

Yet

the debate rages among

circus citrus drinkers

as to how to tope this juice.

Is it relatively sweet?

Or absolutely sour?

This mess makes for

thirsty men

and the dumb man just

drinks it.

Beer Night

Beer Night

It's a beer night

And that's all there is to say about it

The pints come in freakishly large bottles

The kind that cost five ninety nine

And say 7.5% alcohol by volume

The labels are cute

And I'm campaigning to take that word

-cute-

back from womankind 

an adjective mature enough to do a label justice

And I've got the music on

And I've written a horribly unpoetic poem

for you to read

unpublishable...even for a blog

Yale would impale their faces on these words

And I've got many things to say

only telepathy could relate

and there is no second draft for this one

no polish

in fact, hold your breath

while I apply finger nail polish to

the toes of an

alligator

It's beer night

too much to read

and one pint shy of a

high resolution 

intoxication

Wasn't Much

Wasn't Much

We stood there disappointed at Hastings
It wasn't much

We stood there disappointed at the Eiffel Tower
It wasn't much

We stood there on the Great Wall
We were disappointed in it all
None of it was much
It amounted to a lot of nothing
Wrapped in fables for the easily intimidated

We stood there disappointed in Time Square
We stood there disappointed at the Grand Canyon
What did we expect?

We stood there disappointed in Dylan
His voice wasn't much
We stood there disappointed on the plains of Mongolia
We ate things in that tent of nomads that remains unknown to us
But it wasn't much

We stood there in Pamplona on July 9th and watched a bull gore a drunk man
We stood there at Machu Picchu disappointed in our inadequate hiking shoes
We stood there and we stood there
Nothing happened

We stood there in Saint Petersburg disappointed in Russia
We stood there in Ceylon contemplating a Sinhalese Na
We stood there disappointed in the home of a Bigfoot enthusiast
We stood there disappointed at the Creationist Museum
We stood there disappointed at Disneyland
We stood there disappointed in line at Taco Bell
It wasn't happening
It just wasn't going to happen today

We stood there disappointed at the record store selling vinyl for a small fortune
We stood there as the world spun
Disappointed in it all
Nothing was happening
It wasn't much
None of it was much

We stood there watching Dostoevsky chopping wood in Kolyma
We stood there watching Van Gogh's swordplay in a brothel
We stood there as Poe fell to his knees at the grave of his young wife
We stood there disappointed in it all
Yet we stood there and took it all in

We stood there and we exhaled cold breath
We had seen it all
None of it was much

The train passed before us and vanished on the horizon
The last thing we heard
We thought we heard
A whistle from the engineer

"Wait. What was that?"

"I think it was a whistle."

"From the train? It was the train?"

"Yes."

We stood there disappointed in the murder of crows
We stood there and dared to cross the river by ferry
We stood there and watched the people waiting in their cars

In the class room the young man worked on his vocabulary
He got stuck on the element yttrium while perusing the Ys
He couldn't look away
We stood there curious
But we had to move on

We stood there staring at the columns of basalt
The sun brought their shadows to our feet
Where light began to intrude in darkness
We let our eyes stray
And fussed over the missing olives in our martini kit

After a lifetime or two
The elements realigned themselves
And we begun to sandwich ourselves in the
Interceding layers of mica
Our perceptions were of mineral and flesh
Events were tempered and eventually our faded host

We stood there
Never amazed
Only as statues erected in Time's
Curious decay

Empire

Empire

Empire takes swing

Americans scoop up lies

Freedom's piñata

Mountain Stream

Mountain Stream

My cold mountain stream

You ask nothing of me but

The clothes off my back

A Tax

A Tax

ash fell like this in 19

80

could have been the gods dust

ing clouds

teardrop ghost

towns

tumbleweed cars

tear nato

blew that place a

part

people there walk in chop

ped bits

cable to kabul in rub

bull

sleep with a k forty 7s

air str. ikes

drone a tax

dumb mock crazy in ax

shun!

Loose Change

Loose Change

Loose change

Dumb on the floor

Like a fat ant

I don't ever count it

I relate it to strange sad movies

When the good guy does bad things

They redeem him in time to kill him off 

At the end

And we get a kick out of it

I'm not above it but

That guy is me

Loose change

It falls scattered

Like dirty sunlight

The 21st Century equivelent of Fate

Think about it

Loose change

Nobody counts it

Or counts on it

It's just there

In my pockets

Before I sleep

A special kind of immunity

Rare to dreams

Not a Stalker Song

Not a Stalker Song

I got a crush on a blonde singer down in California

She got a ring on her finger, I thought I should warn ya

But this is not a stalker song

I happen to have her sister along

We talked through the night throwing stones in the quarry

She drank all the wine then she slurred me a story

She sang, “This is not a stalker song.

I brought the groom's best man along.”

But back to the blonde I've been pining for

Like the bull to the cape of the matador

She's sexy yet classy she’s soft but she's strong

I happen to have her sister along

We drove through Milpitas but the bars were all closed

So we went to a club where the girls were exposed

At 4 we were kicked out when she climbed up the pole

Drunk on ‘to kill ya’ there were pranks we could pull

She looked at me slyly and said with some spite,

“I know an afterhour’s party that’s going all night.”

I said no, she said yes, and that settled the score

The bride and groom heard a knock at their door

They answered together all sleepy and snug

They clung to each other like the legs on a bug

“What are you two doing here? The party is over.

You can sleep in the guest room if you want to stay over.”

It was at that fine moment that reality struck

It dawned on us then we were two cents short of a buck

So you see, this is not a stalker song

I happen to have her sister along

Buddha of the Yard

Buddha of the Yard

i told

the buddha of the yard

that its pomeranian

would not achieve enlightenment

in the street

Seabed of Night

Seabed of Night

Beneath the seabed of night,

     octopi trees and autumn moon;

Starfish mounds of leaf;

A dying street light reef;

Bug shrimp in spider crab nets;

The tidal roar of engine;

The whale blubbering of drunks;

Mollusk madhouse on the corner

     of Cherry and Main;

La Niña breeze blows El Niño smoke;

Plate tectonics at work on broken street;

Fumaroles spewing molten wood at the mill;

Cop car’s sonar song and depth charge honk;

Seahorse Conquistadors discover

     the uncharted Sidewalk Islands

     near the old shipwreck that you call home.

Garlic Sunset

Garlic Sunset

  

You city streets   no better

         than gondola rides

                with a pit

                    bull

                         Grid has lungs

                     in vice

             can no longer breathe         your

                                                  vile politics

  Garlic sunset

       Corvette moon

            Tell me a story

                 On canvas

             sweet rebellion

          and circles

   paint circles

    Around

Around

  Around 1789

      Around heads in

        wicker baskets

Around Napoleon’s revenge

Around the age of fear

Bleach

Bleach

Bleach is man's best friend

Spots of murder are troublesome and

Genocide tends to leave a stain

I have to use it myself when I eat out

Restroom signs stating that employees must wash their hands

Make me nervous

Here's what you do to sanitize your dinner situation:

Place meal in an appropriate-sized glass jug

Pour one cap of bleach in for each entree

Shake it up vigorously

Empty contents back onto plate

Bon apetite!

Bleach is equal to medicinal short-term memory loss

This is what I used to tell dictators in my seminars

Dictators were my best students

They always brought me apples

Here's what you do to sanitize your genocide situation:

Place all your bodies in an appropriate-sized hole

Pour one cap of bleach for each body

Stir vigorously

And Deny, Deny, Deny

For democracies, just add a sprinkle of jingoism

My students often confide that they can't remember yesterday

And I tell them not to worry

It's just the bleach

Name your wars something ridiculously nebulous

To achieve the Bleach Effect

Keep it simple, use basic geography

“The Afghanistan War”

“The Iraq War”

“The Libya War”

I hate to pretend to be an English teacher, but...

But by removing the subject (the aggressor)

But by removing the predicate (any action denoting murder)

But by leaving the direct object (the victims of war) dangling all alone

Makes for forgetful slop

Who's doing what to whom, anyway?

Bleach is a gift

That's theirs to give

Freedom

Freedom

Freedom is acknowledgment 

That the world was never perfect

And never will be

Freedom is standing up for yourself

And staying out of the way of 

Others

Freedom is the recognition

That all good things must end

And all bad things, too 

Memorial Day

Memorial Day

I had a grandfather who fought in WW2

He didn't die in combat

He lived to be a senile old [white] man who died

From natural causes

So today, I felt it wasn't necessary

To decorate his grave

But I know people that decorate any veteran of any war

Regardless of whether or not they died in armed conflict

Memorial Day used to be called Decoration Day

Decoration Day was first celebrated by former slaves 

First observed in Charleston, South Carolina in 1865 by 

Freed Black Men

But the idea was catchy and Decoration Day was changed to

Memorial Day after WW1

And now we use Memorial Day to commemorate

All soldiers who have died in any war since

(Or for any former servicemen deceased for any reason)

If there ever was a shell game played with history

I can't help but to be cynical 

When will we commemorate all future servicemen

Who may or may not die in future wars?

And since America's plantation owners have returned

Why not change Memorial Day back to Decoration Day?

We niggers sure as hell ain't free yet

But we're likely to be coming soon to a theater near you