“City Blues” Into the great blue lonelyCold morning, the sun hiddenBut for a moue’ on the cloudsIn the gutter, a cigaretteRides along, buoyed byA crushed lipstick print.The attempted lift, a weightOf sorrow, of exhaustionThrough the cold, the sunAttempts to riseAbove the mountainTo light the concreteDry the morning sidewalksCall the street sweeperTo prepare the day forCivilized souls and businessAll the comings and goingsOf wingtips and high heelsAnd elevator rides up to nowhere.(Georgia Santa-Maria)
Culture Shock:
[Untitled] no plane hole in sightpoints to duh an inside jobfuck the governmentthose who knew now deaddetonation so precisewitnesses flew freeah sweet victimhoodinnocence in red white blueyour Spring blood bouquet what makes us believeour truths too hard to conceivelies fall down in dust the bad guys got ushow to get them back?truths buried at seaOf course you know whereClinton said of Osamaoh she caught the shitwar toys for boys yeahdon’t tell me war’s passéit’s hard cash, hon bun drone bombs, time bombs, jobsun be fuck ing leave ablestill kill kill killingeducate yourselfcheck the timelinedetonation bombstoo hard to believe?Bush would kill us for profit?Bush and co. love warBush Rove WolfowitzThe Hague indicts for war crimesRumsfeld Cheney too(Merimee Moffitt)
Culture Shock:
“5/16/02… 8 months later” i served during peacetimenever had to take the pointon a real patrolbut now i know what it’s liketo see every crack in thesidewalk to study strangers approaching mefrom afar and gauge how closeis close enough i hear barking dogs from 3 blocks awayand ask why in public places i sit facing the dooranticipate the look that says"i-don’t-have-anything-to-lose"the icy gaze raising up to Godjust before the unleashing of hellon earth at night i dreamof silver pterodactylsblinded by the suncircling for a placeto land and angelsangels falling from the skywith singed wings(Richard Vargas)
Culture Shock:
“A Christmas Story” Avoiding truth, hiding from what’s eating my heart 9/11, a self-inflicted wound for greed, for oil, for nothing but to grease America’s slide into Fascism My country, a figment of my imagination.Imagine a nation, imagine a nation A nation of givers instead of takers Is it too late? We will pay the cost in the blood of our children.Where can it be said if not in poetry Holding it in so long, 10 years My son’s service, his life force misused to line the pockets of the Oilygarchy. Peak oil, a myth they say, may be the best hope of humanity Everyone’s cars rusting in their yardsgood for planters, dog houses, earthships We’ll have to relearn how to die then What will it take for us to remember that we are a family that we are no more separated than 50th cousins that the DNA of life spirals in a circle connecting all living things? It’s all coming to an end. We are all actively participating in bringing about our own endTaking so many innocents with us already so many gone from memory Those free of self-consciousness hostages to human selfishness Our time so short our ideas so inflated “What is man That Thou art mindful of him and the son of man That Thou visitest him? For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, alleluia and hast crowned him with glory, glory” What will humanity crown itself with? The first of earth’s children to consciously choose the hour of their own departure A glory more than questionable.Psalm 8:4-5(Susy Crandall)
Culture Shock:
[Untitled] Til then…It’s been quite a few sunsets since rush hour broke for the skyBuilding One shed people From her view like tearsThen the other one criedOn the morn of her deathNew York smoked twin cigarettesDown to the ground(Hakim Bellamy)
Culture Shock:
[Untitled] It’s 9/11Ten years have already passedLoss and grief have not It’s been a decadesince New York’s skyline was changedand heroes were born No more Twin TowersEmpty space is all that’s left –Constant reminder Terror struck our heartsAs airplanes struck the TowersOur Flag still stands tall(Rev. Rebecca Guile Hudson)
Culture Shock:
[Untitled] Memories of planesHavoc softened by seasonsOf migrating cranes(Jeanette Alderete)
