September 3rd, 2010
The soap opera organ announces
what we can hardly bear to hear.
A metal-aproned matron
summons the skin ribbon
she left on the seat of a Galaxy 500,
circa 1969. Her tremolo
is a casual torture. We mistake
her voice for a choir of a thousand
muffled mothers and wobble dutifully in
to an Easter dinner of wood duck
and greens. There are no roses
around our scarred 3D hearts
or arranged in the centerpiece
that absorbs what words we can pick
from our teeth. We are weary, heavy
weary, of managed creation and sick
from songs that tempt us simply
to silence. We scrape cold beards
of frost with manicured nails,
screeching at the April windows.
Our fathers were fools to store
their small-grained harvests
in such broad-slatted barns.
We watch the mess heap up
with the snow and the hyphens.
Nobody clears the faux-oak table
but the talkative furniture
does our screaming for us
and a phatic nation learns to curse
in shrunken frontier tongues.
.
joesmith
.
© joesmith, from “The Way the Worlds Comes In,” an upcoming volume of collected poems.
Posted in Parables, joesmith, poetry | No Comments »
August 30th, 2010
Once one absorbs the irreality of everything, is there any other choice but to survive it, virtually?
Posted in Thought Shards | No Comments »
August 30th, 2010
“Time itself, lived time, no longer has time to take place.” – Jean Baudrillard
Posted in Thought Shards | No Comments »
August 30th, 2010
When people lose their sense of awe, they turn to religion. When they no longer trust themselves, they depend upon authority. – Tao Te Ching
Posted in Thought Shards | No Comments »
August 29th, 2010
Q: Name one convincing intellectual of the American Right.
A: We don’t need no stinkin’ thinkers.
Posted in Thought Shards | No Comments »
August 29th, 2010
In the End Times, the producers of propaganda will profit from the people’s demise. Put that in your Rapture bowl and smoke it, Righties.
Posted in Thought Shards | No Comments »
August 29th, 2010
In the past, American Populism hasn’t benefited the status quo. That’s 1 aspect of this current strain that makes it a proto-fascist wonder.
Posted in Thought Shards | No Comments »
August 29th, 2010
Ugly American Populism has come & gone through its young history, but it’s not led by the filthy rich (Beck, Limbaugh, newly rich Palin).
Posted in Thought Shards | No Comments »
August 29th, 2010
Glenn Beck brings all the crackers to the yard.
Posted in Thought Shards | No Comments »
August 29th, 2010
Pardon my absence of comedy. America distresses lately.
Posted in Thought Shards | No Comments »
August 29th, 2010
Must each American political season be more farcical & less rational than the last?
Posted in Thought Shards | No Comments »
August 29th, 2010
To “Restore America?” Expand our “news” inputs, make up our own minds & talk to one another again? Just a thought.
Posted in Thought Shards | No Comments »
August 29th, 2010
The only high-growth sector of American GDP in 2010? The cost of speech. http://bit.ly/b0apeY
Posted in Thought Shards | No Comments »
August 29th, 2010
The primary skill of Beck, Limbaugh, Palin, O’Reilly & sundry propagandists is their ability to turn lonely inchoate anger to group rage.
Posted in Thought Shards | No Comments »
August 29th, 2010
Mohammed, founder of Islam: charismatic militaristic ignoramus.
Posted in Thought Shards | No Comments »
August 29th, 2010
Joseph Smith, founder of Mormonism: charismatic womanizing huckster.
Posted in Thought Shards | No Comments »
August 29th, 2010
Mormons and Muslims read the world’s most ridiculous holy books. Read them. See for yourself.
Posted in Thought Shards | No Comments »
August 29th, 2010
The Koran is not worthy of burning, flushing down the toilet, or wiping my fine atheist ass.
Posted in Thought Shards | No Comments »
August 29th, 2010
Posted in Thought Shards | No Comments »
August 29th, 2010
Book of Mormon: Jesus literally visited the Americas & God turned people’s skin black because they were wicked. A ridiculous religion.
Posted in Thought Shards | No Comments »