There’s no one out at four in the mourning
the streets are empty and all I ever want to do
is crawl back into bed and pretend that the world is not ending
one person at a time
it’s like driving through a haze of smoke
with cops and whores basking in the glow
of harshly colored streetlights and cigarette cherries
malt liquor bottles and shoes hang from a high tension wire as
I roll down the street and look back at the faces
looking at me with bad intentions
malt liquor bottles sparkle in the night and someone’s shoes
hang from a high tension wire
where warriors stare down their own reflections on the tinted glass
as we do our own drive-by
in this neighborhood
and light up the night sky once again
I know just as well as they do that we don’t belong
here but we go anyway because that’s the job
it becomes a cheap form of entertainment
on the nights when the dead are not doing their job
we are detached – mere spectators with blood on our gloved hands
and memories in our back pockets like cigarette burns
these streets make the headlines every morning
and every day I come back for more
fuck reality television
this is the news
- SJR
I keep telling myself: Every day is more ridiculous than the last. And then I wake up the next day and say the same thing. Somehow, some weird way, the world is spinning backwards at a snail’s pace. We’re still counting forward but everywhere around us basic civil rights are being rolled back as if the Wally World smiley face is on a price-slashing rampage and he’s not taking shit from anyone.
There is no retort for this – the statement speaks for itself because it is true – every day is more ridiculous than the last. It reads like a run-on laundry list of offenses. Choose your poison – there’s everything from the dreaded terror babies to the tacos of mass destruction hidden in the Southwestern U.S. and it’s all designed to make you do one thing: nothing.
We live in a world now that utilizes news and entertainment as a weapon. It does this by pacifying *the American people with endless streams of mindless bullshit and then follows it up with constant orders to consume – meanwhile Rome burns to the ground and is then neatly swept under the rug until the curtain goes up the next day. They don’t even lie about it any more – they will tell you that it’s junk yet we still crave it in increasing amounts.
We have insatiable appetites for insta-entertainment and news…to the second updates about the apocalypse, American apartheid, socialist zombies back from the dead and the terrible, horrible, unthinkable (won’t someone think of the children?!) Mexicans and Muslims that are ripping apart the very fabric that holds Pleasantville together.
Continue reading »
Recently, a local high school (Mandarin High) removed a book from its 10th-grade reading list due to one parent’s complaint that the words on a page near the end of the book were too shocking, vulgar, horrific, profane, the end of all civility etc. The book in question? “Graceland” by Chris Abani. The book has won numerous awards and is a popular choice for high school reading lists across the country. So why would anyone find it objectionable?
Is it the sometimes over-the-top violence in the book? No, The LA Times reports, “”Graceland” includes passages of brutal violence, but it is the sexual content of a torture scene that the Florida mother found objectionable.”
Fair enough…this isn’t porno we’re talking about here but literature – celebrated, award-winning literature. One parent becomes outraged at a single page in a book yet there are innumerable advertisements, films, songs and print ads that are just as sexually suggestive and or violent that kids get bombarded with daily. Helen Lovejoy is not beckoning for anyone to please think of the children when the film “Kick Ass” is heralded by teens so why is the book so offensive?
Continue reading »
If you are not aware we have have Facebook page that is used to give insight and background to many of the pieces of writing that are published here. You’ll find out what inspired a piece of writing or learn how I feel about a particular story. I also share links, humor and writing-related stuff as well. Lastly, the Facebook page is used as a discussion forum for everything from industry news to feedback on what you, the reader, likes/dislikes etc. It’s open forum and readers are encouraged to share, give feedback and join the discussion.
Everyone and their grandma has a Facebook page now – come check ours out and give us a “Like” to stay informed and get the inside scoop.
I’m not sure what compelled me to do it – perhaps it was that small voice in the back of your mind – the one that tells you do things in a reserved and cold tone. I could not have been older than eight – old enough to know right from wrong. I was told at an early age to defend myself as needed. My father insisted that I not allow myself to become a victim to bullying and up until that day I was unscathed. But what happened was something else entirely; it was something from deep inside that wanted to lash out and I would become all too familiar with it in the years to come.
When I was little my grandparents would babysit my brother and I while my mother took classes at the local University. They had a modest home in the suburbs and I have fond memories of that time. My cousin and I would play in my grandfather’s camper or go to the nearby park. It was only when my cousin was not around that I would get into trouble.
Down the street, at the end of the cul-de-sac and next to the entrance to the park, lived an older boy whose name I cannot remember. I must have befriended him at some point but the only time I can ever remember seeing him is the time I almost killed him.
Continue reading »
Recent Comments