always look out for someone who cherishes books & then burns
them.
i first noticed the lack of outrage in the summer of 2004/the year the
Republicans & their balls of steel blew through nyc like a shark in water/
looking back over my shoulder, through the pinched elbow of time, i can
see it was merely a habit i had noticed, a conscious “putting-down” a fear
of “letting loose”/elements of souls not saved
We have no anger, We have Facebook.
they have pathologized everything that is normal.
mtv created our generation/a holocaust of chic-radical, violent, racist-
woman-hating, rape-loving, consciousness-lacking nation/gave a
generation of idiots who were weaned on Star Wars – cheapness & trash,
pimps & prostitutes, & Lexus-wet dreams & made sure they were dried
like corpses & believed in like rain
rage is of a past era/so we’re accused of “romanticizing” the human
error/of civil rights /cause we’d rather crack open the skull of a depraved
man who refuses to give his seat to a woman rather than call my black
brother a nigger/or my white sister a bitch/so we’re branded
“Dinosaurs” & my head aches & my teeth ache & i wonder where my
family is, was, could be…
take some responsibility/stop blaming your kids/you don’t hate anything
cause you don’t love anything/you don’t love cause you’re consumed with
fear
you say you hate your landlord but you give him all your money/you say
you hate the war but you’re glad its bright & sunny/you won’t give to a
man without a job/but you’ll duly pay your taxes /so Uncle Sam can maim
and rob,
Ah,
eat your pizza & shut up/we’ll join you if you’re ready to sweep /
We’re not preachers
We’re cleaners
sent to
take out the morning trash
everything is personal cause there is no business/just opportunity for the
rich to get richer & for you to give keep feeding them
We have sewed the seeds of Kitty Genovese.
“We have sewed the seeds of Kitty Genovese” –great line!Powerful poem, really urgent and fluid. Inspiring. I just read a book about Kitty Genovese — great connection you made.
Thanks, Theo. I appreciate your comment….and yes, the Kitty Genovese syndrome still lives on…I live not too far away from the area she was slain. And for some reason her name, the incident has summed up the brutality and malaise of our time…it has taken on something almost mythic. Frightening. Peace to you.
“kitty genovese” is pure brilliance.
Like Theo said – really urgent and fluid.
Your work poignantly voices the madness – in all of its explosive technicolor – that routinely does backflips on my brain, but for which I could never express with such profoundly sagacious clarity.
Thank you for being here to help us make some sense out of…everything.