All Over the Place

The Hazards of Scholarship

Jerome Shucktice moved to Ludge, Iowa, expressly to flee the city's jealousies and backstabbing. Most of his trouble came from mastery of the Galladine, a stringed instrument from the Hittite civilization.

Deceived others attempted to advertise similar knowledge, flaunting, too, pitiful musicianship.
He refrained from comment, and they, therefore, savaged him.

He planned--another reason for rusticating in Ludge--a satirical novel in response.

And, though he wouldn’t pander to let it be known, he smiled inwardly about being the leading intellect there.

A few weeks after settlement on his quaint fisherman's cottage on the river, Galladine on Lower Pea-Bosk he named it, a notice on the library bulletin board stopped his breath.

LUDGE'S OWN AMY DRESH NETTLES WILL
PERFORM ON THE GALLADINE AND DISCUSS
HER NOVEL FEATURING THAT ANCIENT
INSTRUMENT

He noted the date, and since no one knew him, went. To what end? Laugh inwardly? Pile scorn when he later developed friends? Perhaps even to “praise” a local with an A-minus for effort.
The audience proved to be a collection of retired farmers and their wives, plus two bookish fabric store clerks who shared an apartment, and
had requested the day off to attend.

An outsized buzz as the lady entered, for she wasn't a person, really. Well not by most definitions.

But rather, a life-form. Sort of a green, Jello-ish amoeba flowing under Jerome’s chair and raised feet, and finally bending onto a platform-- looking at that point like something from a Dali painting. One farmer cleared his throat.

The librarian rested the stringed instrument on this shapelessness, and some kind of protuberances rose to strum bizarre chords.

Since he fainted along in here, Jerome never did find out how she read, but he did revive after Amy Dresh Nettles slid her departure. The fabric store fellows lingered on their way out, playfully introducing themselves as Don, and R. Gay Apparel, but then breathlessly imploring him not to reveal outside the town what he had witnessed.

Oh My!-Scoffing CNN reactor:

"Things in Washington done
for political reasons...!"

But this mess has to do
with firing prosecutors

getting too near deeds
of the criminal GOP

cronies. That lady?
With the scales
and blindfold? Even

slimeballs know
we owe her.

Prez’ Latest Baghdad Plan

pisses in the wind, despite
the incisive CEO General.

They can’t wait for us
to leave, to rev up their
old tragedy. We’ll go

elsewhere to bear
our newer one.

The Bush Bible, as Regime Producing Bumper Crop of Criminals

Verily verily I say to each of you
get thee to a billionaire. For
such proximity insureth

that you’ll walk. For who else
can biddeth up American Justice
unto its proper, patriotic level?

HAVE THE CITIZEN'S RIGHT TO DEMAND THAT OUR REPRESENTATIVES...!

Cdn’t agree more! & some
of us are putting together
a little kitty.

American Gaud

Noble Cause hits
trashcan,clinicians

moving on to less
spangled frauds.

 Rilke's Poem

   of his mother
    at the piano

    melts down 
   the page, it's
   that gorgeous.

  She bends towards 
    us, languid-
  ly becoming light. 

 Rilke's Poem

   of his mother
    at the piano

    melts down 
   the page, it's
   that gorgeous.

She bends towards
us, languid-
ly becoming light.

Age of Pericles, Not

Sarcasm’s a cheap coin I mostly learned
in ‘hood and later graduate study.

But might as well spend it on these
George Babbitts running things.

Dark Age, but with shinier geegaws.
But go ahead, keep throwing in
with the Babbitts. That said,

you’ll be embarrassed
years hence, or walking dead.

Typical Crap Town

& now
they got
Wal-Mart.

  Three farmers meet for coffee

  knowing what they know. Through
hint and understatement, they
     file it Iowa cold. In

  more apparent tone, three
Manhattan friends convene, their

     chatter terribly keen,
         yet reassuring. Both 

  groups know everything, so,
a question, then, of style. Each 

laughs at the other: One seen in filth 
  and marauding blacks and browns,
  the other doorstop-dumb midst corn.

       The Comedy of Manners 
         depends on turf. 

Cold Trillion

to pay for wars.
Don’t worry,
it’s on plastic.

Card has Chinese characters.
But, again, don’t worry.

We’ve lost but don’t...well
you know, cuz Money
Never Lost a War.

Pockets are overstuffed:
zealous believers
who kick back.

Some kids’ll hardly kick
on aluminum legs but
Money Never Lost a War.

Babies in Iraq are blown to bits
but friends here are enriched.

That’s how it should be
under “Liberty,”

key to swims in
blood and cash.

God’s plan so never worry:
Money Never Lost a War.

Most on Right Believe in Nothing

outside of dough,
so pretend

fiercely. Iron
will & head. Pluck one

guitar string: America
the Beautiful! Try

Send in the Clowns.
From their crowded mouth
the endless corporation,

within whose filth we
sing & dance & choke.

Hire Karl Rove

Dems! Stink he
put on “Liberal”

has wafted o’er
to Republican &
Conservative.

Would he keep the fans
churning for enough $?

The Art of Class

Rich emulators,
aka educated, can quarrel so with

incremental detail exhausting
priggish wit for meticulous

spite. Old, dim class slams doors
& strides the hell out well before
this cruelty pirouettes.

American Equality

Everyone gets same amount of ice --
rich get theirs in the summer,
& poor in the winter.*


*sentiment attributed to Sheriff Bat Masterson

GOP, Old & Young

-Between you and me and the doorpost-Democrats, we stole Ohio.
The professors are still going mad trying to understand the
mathematics of it. It has nothing to do with math. Well, their kind
of math. Theory. Another name for shit.

-What has it really got to do with, then?

-Winning by refusing to lose. First the Supreme Court sucker-punched
the nation, and the next time round the halfass Dem really won
the electoral, but we pulled Ohio, like a rug, out from under him.

-Well. we played the fraud card for the last time. Even Democrats have
caught on, don't you think?

-Hey! Not a zero sum game. They try their little tricks, but remain amateurs,
at least in their present incarnation. We learned a lot from their past ones!

Anyway, the patriot card is the only hot one now. I don't want to see a Republican
without him or her waving a flag!

-Well I got one in my lapel.

-That's not what I mean. I mean a real flag! Always. Literal! People understand the literal.
So, a literal symbol for patriots as opposed to traitors.

-Must we be that harsh? Or are you just pulling my leg?

-Survival of the Fittest!--our cornerstone. Decent people'll prosper. Unfortunately,
that results, as a byproduct, in a sprawling pile of spicks and niggers and white trash.

Which sucks all the energy out of the do-good Dems! If you ever want proof of what assholes
they are, just witness their alleged social programs. If those people want to get anywhere,
then don't take a penny! Get to fuckin work! Cultivate people! Tell them what they want to hear!
Make yourself indispensable! Blow somebody if you have to.

-I always like to listen to you, because I know things are not that rotten.

-Oh yes they are! And it's a blessing from God!

Our Captain Says We Kill For Jesus

Shouldn’t, I suppose.
We know our duty--most
of us, anyway, and Jesus

isn't required to perform
it. Sniper Junior

wasted a sand nigger (sounds
like song title)

taking a shit.
Shit blown everywhere!

“See that, J. C.?” he shrieked.
“That fucker’s stinking

up the Ay-rab heaven now!
Laugh, Savior, cuz THAT
is fuckin funny!”

Some of my buddies did.
They’ve lost track
of everything.

Life is Imagined

 Oh can be tri-
 angulation: 2

 affirming you 
 attended such 
 & such a school, 

 say, but beyond
  these basics,
  not much. You

    invent,
second by second,

    editing 
to choke fancies 

  of others,
  or even to 

    harmonize,
  if higher stakes. 

Party

The go fuck yourself party
advances their wars
while scanning for others.

How can we stop them?
We tire of our own voices,
finally. They continue

to believe in several
things at once, many
gone defunct as

meretricious, and
then resurrected
as patriotic.

All intended to enrich
their high confederates,

who, like them, dip into
blood or banks equally.

Tail Gunner Joe

Your vile pig
is their martyr-
hero & v-

v. Why pragmatists
must again run things.

With lunatics shriek-
ing at the margins.

Have the Democrats Found Balls?

One.

Another Shitkicker Wins Huge Lottery

And just after the Elvis
on Velvet Market
had stabilized!

Train Watching


Went with Gramps to our small station to watch The War Train go through.

Some troopers sang as they clicked past, others pushed their lonely faces
against the windows.

Instead of cranking up the barrier to release traffic on Church Street,
Old Carl left it down for another train following.

What’s that? I asked Gramps.

Why that there’s the Gravy Train!

He had been coming into his dotage. As he kept an eye on me, Mother said to keep one on him.
Anyway, imagine a train full of gravy!

At The Conservative Conference

Keynoter tags a liberal “faggot” to
cooing titters & righteous adulation.

Some others churn, though, that
such a sleazy sidebar detracts

from profound ideas
& their serious purveyors.

& from the Pooka.

Seems almost every civilization

has treated wounded soldiers & veterans disgracefully.
In modern times the picture is jollied up by rabid
chauvinists. Flags wave mercilessly into sunsets.

But our administrations have been full of shit. Sorry
for vulgarity; just add completely to present one.

The Panel

CHAIR
We’re through here, Sergeant. Thank you. Can you handle that door okay?
Apparently not. Ooops, spoke too soon.

Well, I know what I think. Like to know what you two...?

MEMBER 1
Excruciating! One word comes out and you can go get a sandwich
waiting for the next.

MEMBER 2
Nothing really explains it! Unless he’s faking.

CHAIR
Lemme rustle his papers again. Yeah. Okay. Fifth roadside bomb.

MEMBER 1
He was pushing his luck. Even in the war zone you don’t have to be
a completely foolish risk-taker.

MEMBER 2
I think you’re both looking for an answer in all the wrong places.
Maybe he’s just dumb. Where’s he from? One of the dumb states?

CHAIR
Go easy there! Party counts on them! Anyway this is a no-brainer.
But hundred-percent disability is out of the question. We’ve been told that.

MEMBER 1
He asked for that?

CHAIR
Well, paper written in his third-grade hand did.

MEMBER 1
Not a chance!

CHAIR
Then what would you go for?

MEMBER 1
Forty.

MEMBER 2
Uh uh. Not me. He can get on the town garbage truck after discharge.
The other guys’ll help him out.

CHAIR
I see a consensus on twenty. And thus I write it down and thus-ssss...
also...you two sign. Uh huh. Thank you! Next is that lady Marine Captain.
The dyke. I’m not up for her. She’ll have to return tomorrow.

MEMBER 2
Have you thought about...?

CHAIR
Of course. And I feel I’m speaking for our highly intelligent member
to my right also.

MEMBER 1
Where else?

CHAIR
We will henceforth open all sessions with The Pledge of Allegiance.



__

Bubonic Plague in California


Comes from bites of fleas living on rats.

So, go after the vector, yes?

Rats in major cities outnumber people.

If capable of organizing, they could have their own mayor and board of aldermen.

On the federal level they could take us to war in Iraq.

The Bright Young Woman

explicating to me, whatever,
doesn’t fathom

shadowing by mad-
women in attics, or

flounces who fracture hearts
weekly, not recalling names.

Others screaming neuroses out
of cramps or myriad other physic-
al pains. Or none. At any rate,

my bright young woman, laughing,
walks away now, and I am satisfied

that she’ll go crazy necessarily,
with history as a guide.

    Predicting TV 

   Melville pronounced himself vile failure,
   withdrawing to lecture whence

          they fancied the South Seas,
       not the whale, so dismal pale.

"Is it true, Sir, that the young native women
       are, uh, entiresly innocent of clothing?"

Owning Defense Stocks &

voting for war? True
Eye of the Beholder.

Ramming distinct brands through?
Grow up and smell the hosing!

------------

Faiths

If a someone drools
advancing your beliefs,

enshrine true saint o-
blivious. Re Wet-

Chin counterers,though,
you mustn’t fail,ever,to omit
the glistening infirmity for

no radio-style corrosion
from your elevation
can totally suffice.

Ah Yes It Was

His breakneck chariot over whole city that day! Gaius in charge except we had a thousand
by that name at least.

So the others became, for example, Gaius XV, foreman at the site of Minerva's Temple,
Gaius XX, building the west gate from rubble in that quarter.

Gaius I took a rare breath to complain to me, "You got a million Romans on a project,
you got a million bosses and two million opinions. But, we're gonna do it! One Day!"

"They’ll say we never did," I pronounced.