I.S.
At first you
were shocked at how white
and uneducated Sequim
was. Then you took a rest, came
back, produced
Mic and saved his life.
God bless that
work… so hard,
draining, then came
Garold, Ohio and I
pray relaxed
motherhood, as much
as is allowed with two boys. You
brought joy and energy, saw
first-hand the
way entire cultures
can be warped:
electronic
control – remote and
cellular, games
and building through
self-aggrandizement on face
book, oh where
is the humanity,
you must have thought. Here
we are, still
struggling to convince neighbors
friends, comrades
communities trump
federal power.
TBS
Your pursuit of the
perfect woman has left you
without a lady friend for
years now. You mock three
who settle
for less than
you would, but how is
alone these
days? Treating you well?
Step up and
permatize one of
these this summer so you will
stick around. Who else to bust
comp0letely on the
local scene
with, and laugh?
You got me torrents,
explained why
computer games are
the best deal
in terms of
entertainment per dollar
spent, but I
still think they just add
to the misery
of those who,
already miserable,
find one more
way to hide from life.
Remain yourself friend.
S.S.
She strides through
campus these days with
confidence, heading toward cold
but inviting labs
in Boulder.
Those years of softball
soccer, studying
in difficult surroundings
paid off, and college
put a full
bloom on an
already great life.
Your leadership kept younger
sisters working hard
even though
they had higher hills
to climb, you never
lorded over, but simply
carried on, a prime
example to
follow or
react to. They say patterns
last a long
ten generations
in families. But
you will stop
the argument, as I have
tried to do.
It mean James, you and
your sisters start new.
><><><><><><
New Ones above, Old Ones below
><><><><><><
New Navy Base Horrors
Historic flutter
returns as memorial
five eighteen
turns into KPOP,
miniskirt dance festival.
May eighteenth being
the day Chun went nuts
on Gwangju:
democracy not
squelched but assured by
U.S.-backed para-
troopers executing dire
overkill,
inspiring rich
kid pamphlet-drop suicides
at Seoul National,
until, on the most
unlikely
peninsula, they
yielded power to
the masses.
A scant thirty years later
tendencies
toward those ugly times,
dictatorial
edicts, a
supposed presidential
suicide,
concrete rivers, eight
beef protestors dead.
New Occupation, 2012
The disenfranchised
finally
take to the streets; without jobs
… they try to
formulate systems
inclusive
of everyone’s needs
by consensus: a
direct democracy for
small town change.
Local gains will be
miniscule,
national non-existent.
Fascists don’t
give up, they just die.
Corporate
mouthpieces seek
leaders to blame, a
list of demands, ribbonned box
to veto.
Two of the
twenty-twelve candidates will
address these
issues, three percent
will vote for them. Though
protests are
on behalf of the ninety
nine percent,
ninety six remain
unable to change.
Live Strong
Peripheral sunrise elongates table shadows, initiates morning calm
five days before the trip. This mixed-race neighborhood
finds curious children stepping toward friendship while parents
remain closed in busy lives with no time for old friends no less
a new batch. Small dose of warm leads to ping pong, kickball
and lacrosse. Fifteen Korean kids experience the U.S., try new
sports, speak English to strangers, love nightly contests, yet
bored by Disneyworld. Orange rays turn yellow, cause
dew-sparkle as a clank of dishwashing jolts early work-day
to life. This heart, shredded, strewn like superfluous jet fuel,
scatters onto February snow so remote no living thing can
detect the agony caused by having to choose between family
and friends or prime faculty position in a culture that routinely
rejects emotional outsiders and is built on hundreds of rules
that strictly judge behavior in order to instill “maturity” at the
price of spontaneity . No natural omens, like a darting cardinal
that prefigures any sound move have appeared. Aspirations change,
fulfillment occurs when newfound silence replaces blabbermouth
stupidity and yard play warms frozen tears as well as crowd cheers
ever did in the days before finding redemption in family and work.
