Settling iii

               


           I don't object
           to the reality
           that there may
           be leading ed-
           ges; if I knew
           where they led
           I couldn't be-
           lieve in risk.

           

    

Puiforcat
Initiales

Seen

          better weeks
          heard better
          compositions
          on the road.

Caleb Byrum
Jake Rose

Senegal is sinking

    Our thugs, too, prepare us
    in their coarsening of our
    discourse and demeanor, to
    accept these consequences.

Bernard Plossu
St. Louis, Senegal
1976

The objection to honesty

          is the objection
          to courage, that
          it's so elegant;

          isn't it notice-
          able, how an ab-
          sence of courage
          is giving every-
          one hope of nev-
          er abandoning it

          that so few days
          have reinforced,
          so strongly, the
          contagious taste
          for living well?

Taking the measure of Tamerlane

Such were
the days,
that made
a hero of
a tyrant;

but never
without a
voice for
raising a
reasonab-
le doubt.

Tiresome,
this fake
our times
thrust up.

Antonio Vivaldi
Bajazet
  Barbaro traditor
1735
David Daniels
  Tamerlano
  counter-tenor
Fabio Biondi
  concertmaster-
  conductor
Europa Galante, 2005

Abby Phillip
Trump Names his In-
  auguration Day a "Na-
  tional Day of Patriotic
  Devotion"
The Washington Post
January 23, 2017

Damon Winter, Childe Hassam, and this cavalcade

Events trigger interpretations,

not only musings drawn by mem-

ory, but observations properly

facilitated by preparedness. We

watch a parade prepared by lem-

mings, from resentments and raw

ignorance, which tasks the mind

to breathe as it was built to

do, ever conscious of a vacuum

at the core of what it sees. If

this readiness had a camera, it

would be called Damon Winter.

Now the passenger in the gaud-

iest coach in this procession

of last Friday passes an ob-

struction at First and Pennsyl-

vania, whose impertinence must

enrage him if he knew its der-

ivation. There is the memorial

to James Garfield, a President

shot for greater respect for

Civil Service than the passen-

ger could acquire in any decade

of the penance to which the

Laws cry out to deliver him,

his despotic, nepotistic cron-

ies trailing after him.

There is the memorial to Ulys-

ses S. Grant, corruption's pat-

ron saint until the passenger's

own rise transcended imagina-

tion, itself; but who had such

uncanny literary honesty as to

leave Memoirs of which we know

we can't deny two things: the

passenger hasn't read them and

will not, and they convey to 

posterity a confession every

sensate mind must mourn, of

his negligent squandering of

loyalty to rank and country 

at Cold Harbor. For that, we

have obstruction to remember,

a fortified concentration of

remorseless rebellious power.

But what Damon Winter captures

of this monumental island are

the figures, Grief and History.

The one, a sense the passenger

cannot master, the other, just

a context he condemns. Winter

expected this photograph, he

was ready for this photograph,

and this weekend The New York

Times let us see it online. We

felt it coming, long ago. We

saw what they were doing and 

they did it, but not by honest

dealing. That is not their way.

And their losing will go on.

On this morning, January 23,

around this corner in down-

town Manhattan, the first of

what must surely be a torrent

of lawsuits against the pas-

senger, personally, is being

brought in Federal Court for 

the Southern District of New

York, one of the most awesome

sites of jurisprudence in our

history. The passenger will

be hauled to the bar of jus-

tice for being in breach of

the United States Constitu-

tion's prohibition of his ac-

ceptance of any form of pres-

ent from foreign governments.

How seamlessly the strands of

memory converge to snare the

gift of reason, we know too

well. Yet how idle to deny,

this cavalcade's not new, and

not immune to its provenance.

Damon Winter
The Peace Monument
January 20, 2017
The New York Times©


Childe Hassam
Wall and Broad
Johnson Museum of Art
Cornell University
1907

Casey Jackson

Settling ii

         Shortbread and
         berries with a
         crème anglaise 
         if we make it.





















Puiforcat
Initiales

And such a glittering arc of justice, too

First, he had the presence
of mind to rip out of the
Oval Office, the carpet em-
broidered with King's fam-
ous observation on the arc
of justice - it is long.

Much subdued discourage-
ment was muttered, here
and there, among the
faithless at the time,
seeming to project inad-
equately absolute loyal-
ty to America. Thus, the
next thing he did, once
he got the keys to the
place and grabbed a short
night's sleep, was to pre-
cipitate a pissing contest
over crowd size, sending
out his mouthpiece to vow
that the press would pay.

We've all been counseled:
ignore the infantilism of
his conduct, and engage
positively with him where
common ground can be found
in policy matters. Given,
though, that thought, word,
and deed soak up so much
of a fellow's time, to say
nothing of common ground,
they rather do extend the 
arc of justice into policy. 
We will never be ignored 
again; why should he be?

iii  Martina Millen