Origins of Wednesday xx: Electability and the mild machine

    What are our frames of
    reference when we com-
    mit the only free act
    we may ever exercise in
    our pretenses to self-
    government? That a gen-
    der selection qualifies
    for our vote? That scab-
    rous proofs of indepen-
    dence qualify a man for
    our trust?

    Just look at the job to
    be done, I say to myself,
    and smile when my friends
    promise me, there's safe-
    ty in electability. 

    I don't dwell in safety,
    a non sequitur derived
    from fear; I don't dwell
    pragmatically, a euphem-
    ism for Class, be seated.
    I get topnotes of black-
    mail in this, don't you?

    I don't dine in cabarets,
    and I don't claim favors 
    from those who do. They 
    claim them of me.

    I claim government where
    it's needed; and I believe
    this starts with how it
    glides its ass into office.
    
    All they are missing, is a
    broad and bawdy Rowlandson
    satiric drawing. They have
    their All Souls. I guess I
    might hang back awhile, to
    mingle with electability. 
    Who would make a candidacy
    of that?

Perry Ogden
Pony Kids
Aperture, 1999©