"Life isn't fair" she lamented
I wondered, "what the @*$&!
Had I knew there would be drama
I would have gone to Wolfgang Pucks.
Shift the paradigm.
Shift the paradigm.
We indulge our egos,
the fear of change,
that dinner every Friday
will keep us from derange.
Shift the paradigm.
Shift the paradigm.
So the inevitable occurs,
A life-changing event,
We thought we knew the course
but found that it was spent.
Shift the paradigm.
Shift the paradigm.
The consequence of non-actions,
those forks we never took,
Running out of time,
we steal one last,
desperate look.
Shifted.
Stop.
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Ode to Charlie Rose
Charlie, oh Charlie,
I'm writing this prose,
Proclaiming your interviews
give me great repose.
I fathom your insights and
choice of interviewees,
Abandoning my habit
of eating Joe Louies.
You saved me from a travesty
worse than living death,
It's the numbing of my mind
through conventional media myth.
It isn't because you're tall and...
...oh that charm,
Or that your questions
sometimes subtly disarm.
It's really because you're open,
like new breezes,
You bring in guests
from all cultural reaches.
The mix makes me confront
the beige of my life,
and commit to writing beyond
the pale of my present strife.
I tell you this, Charlie,
without regard for future hoping,
That if you were open to it,
I'd be open to some groping.
Charlie, oh Charlie,
This long-awaited Ode
has meant I'm moving ahead
to destinations unknown.
I'm writing this prose,
Proclaiming your interviews
give me great repose.
I fathom your insights and
choice of interviewees,
Abandoning my habit
of eating Joe Louies.
You saved me from a travesty
worse than living death,
It's the numbing of my mind
through conventional media myth.
It isn't because you're tall and...
...oh that charm,
Or that your questions
sometimes subtly disarm.
It's really because you're open,
like new breezes,
You bring in guests
from all cultural reaches.
The mix makes me confront
the beige of my life,
and commit to writing beyond
the pale of my present strife.
I tell you this, Charlie,
without regard for future hoping,
That if you were open to it,
I'd be open to some groping.
Charlie, oh Charlie,
This long-awaited Ode
has meant I'm moving ahead
to destinations unknown.
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Barack and being adjective-free
In four short days, we will inaugurate our first black President. The first of a million firsts in this story, something to be very proud of.
Just a newly-lit spark in my father's eye, I was around when Kennedy was shot, when we lost Martin and said good-bye to Robert F. I studied the Camps, lived through the pangs of 70's youth and charted my course. Through sometimes-thwarted feminism, 80's BFH, college and work, I paddled my canoe. Nothing of great notoriety but mine nonetheless. Aging parents, more work and living my joy are where I find myself these days...not a bad place, simply more tracks in my own personal snow.
Through much of my early life, I was either described overtly or through inference as a "female" this or "female" that. ("She", always had a bit of a suspicious intonation. to it.) Over the decades, thankfully, that has waned but as I hear the barrage of news reports on the President-elect, I am reminded of what it was like to be identified first by a characteristic other than what you were so competently charged with doing.
We must acknowledge the special place that President-elect Obama's "firstness" holds for us. The adjectives of "black" or "female" or "gay" to initiate our processing of a person must in time, however, become extinct. The tedium of still using these words to describe or qualify leadership or goodness should be a red flag to us that we still have a long way to go. To put it simply, if we have to use "black" in our description of the President, "blackness" must still be unique and important to us. At this moment in time, it most certainly is. In the not-to-distant future, I'm hoping not.
When we no longer need those "special" adjectives to describe one another, we will have arrived. I hope someone on Tuesday makes this point. If not, not only will I be disappointed but also, it will make me miss Tim Russert all the more.
Just a newly-lit spark in my father's eye, I was around when Kennedy was shot, when we lost Martin and said good-bye to Robert F. I studied the Camps, lived through the pangs of 70's youth and charted my course. Through sometimes-thwarted feminism, 80's BFH, college and work, I paddled my canoe. Nothing of great notoriety but mine nonetheless. Aging parents, more work and living my joy are where I find myself these days...not a bad place, simply more tracks in my own personal snow.
Through much of my early life, I was either described overtly or through inference as a "female" this or "female" that. ("She", always had a bit of a suspicious intonation. to it.) Over the decades, thankfully, that has waned but as I hear the barrage of news reports on the President-elect, I am reminded of what it was like to be identified first by a characteristic other than what you were so competently charged with doing.
We must acknowledge the special place that President-elect Obama's "firstness" holds for us. The adjectives of "black" or "female" or "gay" to initiate our processing of a person must in time, however, become extinct. The tedium of still using these words to describe or qualify leadership or goodness should be a red flag to us that we still have a long way to go. To put it simply, if we have to use "black" in our description of the President, "blackness" must still be unique and important to us. At this moment in time, it most certainly is. In the not-to-distant future, I'm hoping not.
When we no longer need those "special" adjectives to describe one another, we will have arrived. I hope someone on Tuesday makes this point. If not, not only will I be disappointed but also, it will make me miss Tim Russert all the more.
Friday, January 16, 2009
$700 million bags full
Bah Bah Greedy Sheep
Have you any wool?
Yes sir, yes sir, 700 bags full.
One for the bankers
One for the "shame"
One for the car guys
who talk the big game.
Bah Bah Greedy Sheep
Where did it all go?
Keeping all the pols
and execs on a roll.
Bah Bah Greedy Sheep
Have you any soul?
Yes sir, yes sir I bought it at the sto.
Sold it to the pols
and "insured" it for life,
Promised not to default
but crossed my fingers twice.
Bah Bah Greedy Sheep
Where did your soul go?
"Didn't really have one
and lied to Barack O."
Bah Bah Greedy Sheep
Will it get paid back?
Yes sir, yes sir, through taxes and smack.
Taxes through the state
and taxes through the feds,
Cross to Mexicali and
"import" it in my bed.
Bah Bah Rewarded Sheep,
Where do I "buy in"?
Too late this time,
you voted these guys in.
Have you any wool?
Yes sir, yes sir, 700 bags full.
One for the bankers
One for the "shame"
One for the car guys
who talk the big game.
Bah Bah Greedy Sheep
Where did it all go?
Keeping all the pols
and execs on a roll.
Bah Bah Greedy Sheep
Have you any soul?
Yes sir, yes sir I bought it at the sto.
Sold it to the pols
and "insured" it for life,
Promised not to default
but crossed my fingers twice.
Bah Bah Greedy Sheep
Where did your soul go?
"Didn't really have one
and lied to Barack O."
Bah Bah Greedy Sheep
Will it get paid back?
Yes sir, yes sir, through taxes and smack.
Taxes through the state
and taxes through the feds,
Cross to Mexicali and
"import" it in my bed.
Bah Bah Rewarded Sheep,
Where do I "buy in"?
Too late this time,
you voted these guys in.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
