New Poem: HELLO KENOSHA

 hello Kenosha Wisconsin 

 stop assuming everyone Black is an armed criminal 

 tell the teen and adult vigilantes to go home or be arrested

 remove the handcuffs and the leg irons from the severely wounded

and, above all, tell Donald Trump the following:

yes, you’re the President, but you don’t denounce the violence

of your followers and your presence here is unnecessary 

and potentially inflammatory 

thank you for reading this and giving it some thought

a concerned American who votes

 

RITES OF THE COVID-19 SPRING chapbook.

 Now available on Scribd in document form: https://www.scribd.com/document/472173443/Rites-of-the-Covid-19-Spring

The Louis C.K. Poem

    but heeees my freeeeeennndddd say the female comics

    it is hard out there if you want to be funny

    bomb away on the open mics

    eventually get paid a little bit

    others get jealous

    say you’re not all that good

   the resentment you suck up 

    gets spit out in your standup set

    those pain in the ass kids and women

    who want you to pull focus from career career career

    eventually you’re around long enough  

    people think you’re commenting on bile 

    when you’re just regurgitating it

    here, female colleague, watch me wank

    look at this as comedy fraternity hazing

    damn this #MeToo stuff

    made you shelve your movie

    costs one million dollars in lost TV

    you’ll do new act attacking correctness

    drop in unannounced

    keep the press from spoiling the set

    wait long enough, someone will write

    you’re aware of what you’ve done to be diminished 

    when you still think you’ve been screwed 

    by pious people who don’t understand 

    comedy is letting your demons wank

    onto the audience in the same way

    you once wanked on people who,

    if they stood up to you,

    would see their careers go into the tank

    but heeeees my frieeeennnnnddd

    says the male comic who used some of his

    standup special time to middle-finger your accusers

    

    comedy, as practiced by some,  is not pretty

    it’s the fastball whizzing past your head

    it’s the punch smashing your testicles

    it’s the emcee saying you’re going to get fucked with

    it’s the joke that, too many times, leaves a stain

    that can never come out, no matter how much you scrub

    

    

New Poem: HOLLYWOOD

in 1932, she walked into Bullocks Wilshire
bought the best she could afford
then stood by the studio gates until chosen
>
days of learning how to talk, how to stand, how to diet
posing for publicity photographs
coerced into coitus by men who say you have to say yes
dress extra, bit player, supporting actress, star
marriages to leading men who wanted other stars on the side
>
even with a support system of friends and employees,
there’s constant pain, a yearning to stop this nonsense
>
then the contract runs out—make way for others
>
one day after the war,
she’s arrested for speeding down Topanga
after that, B pictures, TV series, then retirement
>
they buried her out in the back
of the church known as
Our Lady of the Cadillacs
>
in 1989, she walked into Beverly Center

New Poem: AMERICA SITS IN THE COVID CORNER

hey Joe what are you doing there
sitting with that passport in your hand
keening and wailing I can’t use it
because the authority figures left the room
and the kids turned over their desks
carved obscenities into the blackboard
pulled the clock down from the wall
smashed it into microscopic metal pieces
screaming school sucks the hell with indoors
then pushed and shoved filling every street
>
the businessmen told the government
let us reopen we’re losing all this money
bellowing in a George C. Scott voice:
Jesus Christ we’ll be ruined
and the government gave in
told the CDC adapt or be ignored
making no commands or demands
just suggestions and punting decisions downwards
>
fear is a deadly disease
even worse than the current virus
so so scared of losing political donor money
even though big business got big loans
small businesses denied, told try try again
in the midst of this no one dared to think
of how to tell the public to mask up sit tight hang on
to see a real reduction in the plague
>
so Joe sits and cries
can’t even go visit Canada this summer
just watches the passing of the shit parade:
bad president battering school districts
amusement park reopening in high plague state
musicians and comedians playing to mask-free crowds
>
hey Joe what are you doing there
feeding your passport into a shredder

Best Movies of 2020 (so far)

In no specific order:
GRETEL & HANSEL
THE INVISIBLE MAN
SHIRLEY
NEVER RARELY SOMETIMES ALWAYS
DA 5 BLOODS
EMMA.
THE TRIP TO GREECE
THE KING OF STATEN ISLAND
MISS JUNETEENTH
THE GIRL WITH A BRACELET
PERFECT NANNY
Honorable Mention:
THE ASSISTANT
CAPONE
HOW TO BUILD A GIRL
ONCE WERE BROTHERS: ROBBIE ROBERTSON AND THE BAND
SWALLOW
TRUE STORY OF THE KELLY GANG
THE WAY BACK
MY DARLING VIVIAN
THE GHOST OF PETER SELLERS
DRIVEWAYS
Overhyped, Underwhelming:
THE VAST OF NIGHT
TOMMASO
BACURAU

New Poem: LIGHTING FUSES

late night noise
sometimes sounds like firecrackers
other times like gunshots
don’t know if it’s meant as fun
maybe it’s audible middle finger:
we’re doing this and screw your pets
and up yours if you call the police
like a male Karen wanting this to stop
safe inside while the red lights shine
across the street with the threat of escalation
and potential death penalty still present
in spite of promises of partial change
>
go back to bed
try to sleep if you can
it will be daylight soon

Contrasting ways of dealing with racism in America

A few minutes ago, I was picking up the day’s mail near the swimming pool at the condo complex and happened to overhear a young mother talking to her children about racism and why it is a bad thing.

Last night, my YouTube homepage brought up a video from actor John Schneider— forever known as faux-Southerner Bo Duke in THE DUKES OF HAZZARD TV series which ran from the late 1970s into the 80s.

Clicked on the video and watched Schneider ruminate about one of the series’s location shoots near Lake Sherwood in Westlake Village CA.

Then, he brought up the renewed discussion of the Confederate flag-decorated General Lee car—which, after Dylann Roof’s church massacre, caused DUKES reruns to be pulled off Viacom’s TV LAND.  Cue the tantrum John Schneider threw at the time:
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/dukes-hazzard-star-rips-tv-806339

But times pass and momentary lessons dissipate.  So Warner Bros. TV allowed Amazon’s IMDB channel to carry DUKES beginning two years ago.

And, at the end of the YouTube video, Schneider references the new controversy and sends out a dog whistle to people hard-wired to watch the show in a reality-free vacuum: “Don’t let anybody tell you what to think!” and inviting commenters to agree with him.

And the comments tend to be of the “Southern pride”/“if it offends you, don’t watch variety including a head-scratcher which contends that around 1980 the Conferderate Flag was recontextualized as a symbol of Southernness and country music.  Plus the usual get over it liberals insults.

The big takeaway from this: most of the older generation won’t drop their views on race, racism and continued refusal to re-evaluate dubious life lessons learned from parents, relatives, friends co-workers, clergy, etc.  They’ll watch Fox News and OANN and bathe in trash talk about black victims of police violence and cry buckets over police officers balking at more responsible, less warlike behavior.

So it’s up to the younger generations—the demonstrators and the children listening to their mother at the swimming pool— to move America forward and keep it from again becoming, as Gore Vidal once said, “the United States of Amnesia.”