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

Why, of course one noticed

 Went out in the car
 at lunchtime, and the
 radio was full of strange
 noises on all the stations.
 Then I remembered, that's how
 they do it, when we're supposed
 to be coerced.


























Jannis Beck

It's a raid

    We do not greet a new administration

    in the intended, or even in the cus-

    tomary sense of that institutional

    term. There is to be nothing adminis-

    trative about it. We greet a sophis-

    ticated, advanced and implacable com-

    bination, to exploit this world by

    intimidation and humiliation, in bi-

    lateral axes of expediency and cynic-

    ism. That transposition fatally ex-

    tinguishes the lavish estate of com-

    mon ground, the magnanimous Mitch Mc-

    Connell opened to the only legitimate

    President in the last three regimes.

    There can be no purpose but resistance.

    This is the shelter, the rest for love.

    

Vojtech Kunes

Holding

          People are pairing off
          for the shelter before
          they can remember only
          the latest siren tweet.
          

Time After Time

Sammy Cahn & Jule Styne, 1947

Chet Baker

Blue Note, 1954

EMI, 2007©

Beyond category

If I remember Ellington,
with whom this expression
is very fondly associated,
it's Billy Strayhorn who
comes to mind; if I honor
Martin Luther King, Jr, 
I'm not forgetting Bayard
Rustin; when I was a boy,
James Baldwin was writing
stories I needed to hear.

I'm glad as hell, I lived
in my time with such men.

   And to see,
   the weather
   fall upon a
   man's faith
   without any
   consequence
   it expects,
   has been to
   acquire it. 
   We're here.
   
   

   




















Damon Winter
  Barack Obama
  Glen Allen, Virginia
  October, 2008
The New York Times, 2008©

Giuseppe Verdi
Nabucco
  III, ii
  Va' pensiero
1841-42









   

The West Bank and I

I realize, of course, snarks will

impugn my sincerity in this dis-

cussion, for an impudence of con-

fiding one's thoughts from the

dressing room. I remark from this

setting only to convey some sense

of the ubiquity of experience in-

vaded by one's pre-occupation,

with any risk of post-Occupation,

of such a casino-rich slash of

desert, simply seething for de-

velopment. But, again, I stray.

We are not Bugsy - er, I mean,

Benny - in making a living. We

use governments for wet work.

Now we're really getting one.

What I value in my nominee for de-

velopment of the West Bank - my in-

defatigable bankruptcy attorney -

is not that he knows who's butter-

ing his bread, but that he defers

to the next generation, as in hust-

ling my dearest flamingo past the

tacky scribes at Federal Court.

Oh, what selflessness! What Polon-

ial footing in the back stairs of 

a bondholder's intrigue. Fate must 

thus distill a conspicuous, ex- 

quisitely lingering unraveling of 

his reputation, as soon as it can 

be found, draped behind my promises.

ii   David Friedman, Esq.

      United States District Court

      New Jersey, 2010

      Bloomberg News©

William Shakespeare

Hamlet

  IV, iii

1600

Will nobody just swat this fly?

Hey, c'mon, guys, this is gettin' tiresome.
Our Great White Hope of Unbelievable Deals
is trashing the Atlantic Alliance, dismant-
ling the European Union, and selling Crimea
down the drain for an arms treaty its invad-
er is begging for, and he's not even on the
payroll yet. Or is he? He's telling his pals
to keep whatever they can grab, if they will
only stroke his fanny. Wow. That's original.

              Yo, Jefferson Davis. Take Fort Sumter.

              Let's create a brand new relationship. 


And the majority Party in Congress? Are we kidding each other, or are we noticing finally how
little it takes to bend them over, for his
signature on their bills of fantasies of ruining the nation, even if it costs the ancient trust
of the world where they plan to do business? 

Or are they so insulated by their rotten boroughs, they can hustle us for anything that lands in their pocket?

Meanwhile, over at The Times, David Brooks is letting his ostentation get the better of him again, with the suggestion of ignoring what the Pretender says, and studying only what [else] he may do which may be Presidential. Many have been tempted to this illusory escape from the vortex of his manipulations, forgetting what lovely wreckage a regime can wreak by mere PR. 

Too bad for that little hypothesis, that the Chancellor of Germany was compelled to take promptly to the microphones, to decry the instability of American credibility as of the publication of his latest use of words. 

ii       Robert McCabe