The campground host came by after dark. Knock, knock, knock
- he rapped on the side of my trailer. The dog was up and yapping. I went
outside without any shoes. I turned on the light. He wanted to know how I was
doing. He seemed too want to chat but I knew that was not his real purpose. I
saw the bible that he carried under his arm. He the thin bony man typical
(except those who are obese) of the South who only knows (if he knows of any)
the “good” book. I knew it was not a novel. I let him chatter. I politely replied
to his questions. He chattered on until he was satisfied that he could get to
the purpose of his visit. Now will come the part that I had been expecting, “May
I ask you something personal,” he said? “Go ahead,” I replied. “May I pray with
you?” “No,” I say, “I would rather not.” He is taken aback but only for a
second and he responds, “I understand, I understand.” I say, “Will thanks for
stopping by.” And he says, “God bless you now.” I say, “And you to.” And off he
goes into the darkness unto the next campsite making his rounds.
It’s raining. It started last night at dusk. From a gentle
rain a thunderstorm can grow. It rumbles. It roars. The rain comes down:
plick-plick, plick-plick. It had started as an evening shower. It’s now after dark.
I can hear the rain outside. Coffee is reheated. Aw, that was a close one –
light flashes. Three second later the boom. Near misses are deceptive. The rain
continues – bling, bling bling
Rubber Duckies with My Number On’e m
I’m at the Laundromat
In
Swansboro NC
The washerwoman wants
To know
what it is
That
I’m reading
I had stood there with my hands
Akimbo upon
my hips
And she stood there imitating me
Laughing
It’s a novel that takes place
Around here
I didn’t know then
How right I
was
The washerwoman in the
Novel (also
in Swansboro
This
particular Swansboro)
Weights
two-hundred and twenty
This one was tall and skinny
Her daughter and her friend
Were
standing outside
Sucking on the
straws off
Supersized
cokes
Schoolgirls, real whores
Camp Lejuene was next door
At the end
of the month
The boys
got paid
And the Rev. Goodlin Plenty
Got half
his head blown
Off by a jealous
husband
With a Ruger Redhawk
Which had a seven-and-one-half inch
Scoped
barrel
Then Lula and that two-hundred and
Twenty
pound washerwoman
Got down on
their bellies
And snaked out of the Revival tent
Thump thump thump – fifty calibers
Zip over
their metal helmets
As they
laugh
Young southern killers drink
J. W. Dant
according to Gifford
While driving Dusters with NASCAR
Numbers on
the doors
Dreaming of bashing someone’s
Head in
with the back
Of
a shovel
I finished drying my load
She was talking to someone
And
laughing
So many rubber duckies
Rotating
around the ocean
But none of’em with my number
Post-Liberalism: the left without access to the State
“Sort of” a God
The beavers were splashing and the coyotes were howling last
night. The lake is low, marked by a rim of bare shore. The beaver lodges are
out of the water. I didn’t get much sunshine yesterday. It was too dark to even
read. I am anxious to get out and stretch my legs
It is light. The rumbling is getting further off. There is
now only a steady drizzle. Now the sun has come out. The clouds are moving to
the north. The picnic tables are beginning to dry. There is still big puddle of
water in front of the stove. I haven’t
made coffee yet. I go for a walk. I notice a sign. I read it: Bear country –
dogs aggravate bears, keep them on a leash. The bathhouse is locked. Let my day
commence. I am ready for whatever comes my way. Nothing does.
Governmentalization (Foucault): the remaking of the state on
the model of the firm and the remaking of the complex moral subject (the
individual) into “speekers” of human capital” who self-invest to appreciate
their value”
All the while singing
We wondered when we would stop
We knew at sometime we would stop singing
We knew we would then stop wandering
And still we are singing
And still we are wondering
Every rule is a rule until it is no longer a rule
The US federal government spends $100 million a years on
abstinence-only sex education
The young are naturally overcome by lust, but the
middle-aged who show an undue interest in it are more likely to be accused of
idle lechery. The sins of middle are melancholy, envy, gluttony and anger –
Simon Blackburn – Lust, 2004
Demand pulls supply
We who are liberal and progressive know that the poor are
our equals in every sense except that of being equal to us – Lionel Trilling
I mix with the masses. We’re all just Me’s here. That Me over
there. And that one there. That couple – him and her - the male me and the
female me. We’re all me. It’s all me. I was shattered. It was Krystaknacht. But
the clock is running in reverse. It’s spinning counterclockwise. All our
animosities are getting erased. But I’m discovering new ones that I didn’t know
about before. It’s impossible to erase them all. Caesar hates the Gauls and
they hate him. Latin killed Caesar and now it’s killing me. But that’s ok,
‘cause it’s just me.
Out on the open sea with a breaking swell and the wind a
notch too high for comfort, you are the loneliest fool in the world – Jonathan
Raban – Driving Home, 2010 p188
There are lots of things
That I did not notice then
If I had seen them
Then I would have known them then
Don’t you see?
Sometime or another everything is seen for the first time
And everything can always be seen for the first time
sometime
But one cannot see everything every time for the first time
Can’t you see?
And what remains unseen
Remains unnoticed
And anything not seen is not known
Neither this time nor any other time
And yet they may be seen
See!
Not everyone can see everything all the time
No one sees everything every time
Everyone sees every time
At least once one sees
Why can’t you see?
It’s the conscious mind that recalls a dream
As night approaches the last color to disappear is blue. If
the moon is full on a cloudless night the blue hangs on. There is a tinge of
yellow but it doesn’t mix with the blue to form green. They each shade off into black. I go into
town and have a Young’s Double Chocolate. The only person other than the chef’s
wife and kid is a good-looking blond drinking wine.. She’s wearing as pink tube top. Here
shoulders and neck are alabaster. I had a shower and I’ve shaved. I’ve done my
laundry. I turn to her and …
What can I perform to come near her? / How hope to bear up,
when she gives me / The fear-killing moves of her body? – James Dickey – The
Whole Motion, 1992 p66
We need philosophers
With their
boots
On the
ground
All our information comes
From paid
informants
With eyes and ears
On
infomercials
Someone needs to be waterboarding
The
ontology
Someone must pilot the
Epistemology
Thoughts come much faster when you can put them on
paper – William Cobbett
Tax: a return which is neither rent, wage, interest nor
insurance
The obvious alternative to production overseen by
technocrats was rule by “power-hungry party apparatchiks or avaricious
financiers”. We have convinced ourselves that since the financiers won this
debate that the better option since they have since so convincingly trained us
“to celebrate avarice.”
Economics got turned on its head with globalization – from
the enhancement of one group’s wealth at the expense of another group to a
panacea for the enhancement of mankind – from specific wealth creation to
abstract wealth creation. Will not exactly – as it turned out the group
creating wealth at another group’s expense has shifted from a geographic distinction
(national wealth) to class definition (a plutocracy).
Efficiency is usually achieved at the expense of resilience
The power to become habituated to his surroundings is a
marked characteristic of mankind…We assume some of the most peculiar and temporary
of our late advantages as natural, permanent and to be depended on, and we lay
our plans accordingly – John Maynard Keynes – The Economic Consequences of the
Peace, 1919
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