Dead Yellow Monkeys Floating in Oil Wash Ashore

The Happy Planet Index shows the ecological efficiency with which human well-being is delivered around the world. The United States doesn’t do too well. It measures the relative efficiency with which nations convert the planet’s natural resources into long and happy lives for their citizens. Efficiency – well being; isn’t that what the ideologs proclaim that “free markets” do (well they shall proclaim  that's because our markets are not free enough)? The United States isn’t doing very well.

1000 volumes a year / ooze from the minds / of dead monkeys / and yet / we are still too dull to understand them – Ted Berrigan - No Going Around Cities, 1981 p95

It’s an alright kind of place when you have no where else to go. Death is the end of the line. But first there is this misery. It’s not the worst, but it is hard to imagine that anything could be worse. Hundreds of bodies. “less sweet than cows – less fragrant than horses” – one meal a day, watery gruel and hot black coffee then shoved out into the streets before the sun comes up on a gray blustery day.

Life smashes itself on the summits of mountains / or doesn’t smash itself / But the night doesn’t care // The night doesn’t care about anything / And sometimes I don’t care either – Vicente Huidobro – The Selected Poetry of, 1981 p175

Those who censor themselves are not free to not censor themselves

All cruel people describe themselves as paragons of frankness – Tennessee Williams

On top of the slump
When property had already lost
        46% of its value
Now this


The median calculation is
An Exxon Valdez every
        Five days


$4.3 billion in property
       Value lost
From the Louisiana
       Bayous to
Clearwater Florida
Is being predicted
      Which  of these is the least
      Of our worries


And then an apology
I apologize BP that the
President is extorting $20
        Billion from yourself

And then China
Lets lose the Yuan  to float
    Out into the Yellow Sea

The persuasive power of repetition, clarity, and simplicity is something that people who set out ‘to win others’ trust – marketers, political candidates, speech-writers, suitors, and teachers – already have an intuitive sense of, it they’re good at what they do – Drake Bennett – The Boston Globe

Family men and family women
Begin arriving in their sedans
It must be ten o’clock


Their saucers and D cups
     Get bussed
The tomatoes and the beer
     Get trucked
All the bears and the bulls
     Got trained
All the tourists headed for Bangkok
     Get planed
I told her we could go to the moon
     Get aboard my rocketship
We were so bored that we all
     Got on the slow boat


"We’re all going to China"
We sang


That satisfied them
Then they got back into
     Their sedans
And drove back out into
     Their suburbs

Time is all gone / There is only the sure thing in these cycles of hurricanes / Time is all gone / The evening bruises itself alongside its forest – Vicente Huidobro – The Selected Poetry of, 1981o p175

Librarians are increasingly our unofficial social workers for the homeless. It’s access to a bathroom and a shower that presents a homeless personage his greatest challenge. A place to hangout without being roused or having your eyes poked out.

You loved puddles / and tide pools, dear friend. Now / you are dead and I’m left not high / enough and not dry, wavering in the rain, only snails and a spotted / dog urinating on geraniums for company – Amy Grestler – Dearest Creature, 2009 p25