Aught, no. 15 (2006)
Browsing
In the middle of our lives, oh no Mr. Bill, well past
the halfway point of the furnace or the lion's den or
some even less redeeming horror, still singing, sort of,
not to god but to each other, survivors in the same
boat, not really, more like each in their own kayak, oaring
common currents, the differentially unstable sea,
disparate schizoid launchings weathered, exponential waves
of trauma, superego petering out, injunctions
to ambition, enduring extractions of surplus
interpolation: numbers—crunching neurology, labs,
low-fat food, beggaring great bread, salted buttered popcorn-
careening medicalization busying scarce time
life extension as good as it gets digitalized rush
of days, weeks, calibrating quarters of hours, running
crazy stressed, to get back home, to connect, turn on
the computer, clawing the virtual, fingertip whorls,
where embodiment arcs, ambivalence the star to steer
by in the daily circumnavigation of centers
of gravity leashed to indifferent Goliaths, whole cupped
life happily beached on cybersea, shell to the ear, hum
of the hard drive, roar of the surf, keys clack as fingers type,
call it writing, power—countless black ants traipsing across
pages white screen, addict reflex bent over salvific
listservs, mainlining defense from CNN-CBS
data-storms' bulimic gloss virtual vomit surface
needing to be a Firefox to get some critical
compass called by programmers, a browser, though too young to
to have trolled the dim aisles of libraries or good bookstores,
stopping to physically pull one book after the next off
a shelf, feeling the reach, the being tired of standing,
lousy lighting, distant bathrooms, wonderful terrible
not trivial lifeline all there is, not could be, what we've got.
The Bump and the Stop
enforced slowdown
cruising getting into it
head over heels
coming
late to the suburbs
despite love's blandishments
I know the difference
between defenestration
and circumnavigating the block
My Rise from Serf to Squire
a blockbuster
quack quack cutbacks
cronyism scourge
pod streaming
Poverty in the Middle Ages
I can't stop laughing
and crying
the centralizing impulse
recast as defraging
(a good thing)
the terrestrial vulnerable
terror porous
corporate boa heart
branding the missing byte
Phoenix homage
crossed with corpses, courtship
small craft warning hardwired in