Friday, May 22, 2020

I Index Myself So That You Can Retrieve & Cut Me from the 1970 Catalogs

Those 48 hours when Fleabus was Anne Carson's head shot on this blog:




  • which both gets this post a rare tag and lets me post the poem twice 
  • What needs said about the clusterfuck the clusterfuck doesn't say?
  • American psychoses: the plague and blaming the victim
  • I understand it's a balloon
  • it's a balloon to gauge if professional motherfucking Democrats can get away with a vpotus candidate who Fuck Yous both progressives and, more importantly, African-Americans
  • Your approval? the balloon not for you
  • What kind of country do we want? Posted (a) because some of you like Marilynne Robinson's novels (I don't but understand why some do) and (b) a view from my generation on American the Myth, and (c) I am old 


  • and got Doctor Sevrin ears
  • American reality
  • Yes yesterday Creeley's birthday
  • I don't remember reading Creeley since 2019's birthday post
  • shit
  • I barely remember when that rich guy facilitated child prostitution to famous buddy shitlords and famous buddy shitlords' favorite buddy groupies who was arrested then murdered in prison before he could sing and was subsequently airbrushed out of permitted discourse 
  • so I didn't post the Creeley birthday post though I did read and tweet a Creeley poem yesterday, I read that before I decided not to post the Creeley birthday post 
  • The blogdays of summer are here
  • Know your shitlords, know you're fucked
  • Today in American Pig Irony Headlines
  • The violence of recognition
  • West 19:31
  • Woke up w Sunn O))) in my head






DIGITAL ARCHIVE 

Jennifer Kwon Dobbs

How should I index myself so that you can retrieve & cut me
               from the 1970 catalogs

of infant headshots & paste me beside you?
               This I wanted to know

while the grandfather held up his 1940 photo
               of three men laughing beside a new Buick. He said,

"If you could identify them, then my life would be changed forever."
               If anyone knows the names

for paper as vulnerable as skin, then please tell me
               if I find my birth documents

burned, ripped, or yellowed with information missing,
               or if I don't find them at all? I listened

as the panelists advised the grandfather to search the database,
               my body like too much information

unsorted: all errors, useless without a way to see it
               linked to get somewhere. My arms disappearing

while the grandfather passed his laminated photo around the room.

3 comments:

  1. American psychoses: the plague and blaming the victim links to a piece by lois beckett in the guardian - i was struck by the penultimate paragraph

    The Puritans had a form of torture called “pressing”, used during the Salem witch trials. They made the accused person lie on the ground, and then very slowly, over many days, placed one rock on their chest, and then another.

    i wish to point out

    a)the puritans did not come up with this - it was a centuries-old common law practice - see

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peine_forte_et_dure

    and it was used to compel the accused person to enter a plea - a prisoner who pled - either guilty or not guilty - and then was convicted and executed had all property confiscated by the crown

    the property of someone who died before pleading went to their heirs

    more details - see

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peine_forte_et_dure

    b)only one person was pressed to death during the salem witch trials - giles corey - he died after two days

    c)nearly two centuries later henry wadsworth longfellow wrote

    And ye who listen to the Tale of Woe,
    Be not too swift in casting the first stone,
    Nor think New England bears the guilt alone.
    This sudden burst of wickedness and crime
    Was but the common madness of the time,
    When in all lands, that lie within the sound
    Of Sabbath bells, a Witch was burned or drowned.


    d) In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. - philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche

    e)may the creative forces of the universe have mercy on our souls, if any



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  2. It's getting ugly out there. Be careful. Seriously. I went to use an ATM as I didn't want to go inside the bank, and so I was waiting in line and there's this old asshole in front of me, not wearing a mask of course. He looked like your typical contractor and no doubt was hurting badly financially speaking, probably lost most or all business. So he's pissed off, and understandably, and when he gets to the ATM machine he gets some cash then purposefully sneezes spraying his spittle all over the ATM. He turns around and looks at me and says, "It's all yours." Apparently as I was masked it was my fault that he lost his ass in the pandemic. So you see now even wearing a mask can make you a target. It wasn't a big deal, I'm not that thin skinned, but it's indicative of how things are evolving and likely to get worse.


    Just a pet peeve. I'm getting rather tired of seeing these ridiculous renderings of the virus everywhere I go on the internet. I think we all know what it looks like now. Don't you think? Oh yes, very dramatic, very dramatic. I can promise that if I ever see one of these viruses walking down the street or walking their dog I'll be sure to recognize the immediate danger. Okay?

    ReplyDelete