Undemocratic Meditations
I confess to undemocratic meditations:
If Bin Laden had sought instead
to save the world,
what would he have hijacked?
I confess to undemocratic meditations:
If Bin Laden had sought instead
to save the world,
what would he have hijacked?
The dishwasher hums and the laundry’s put away.
Clean sheets, clean cutlery. A puddle of dust
on the hardwood, but the dog is on my lap
and a drowsy rain perfumes the house.
One may well ask what good standing here.
How does reason answer to madness?
A hot shower can erase the cold but not
the shiver. Is it not better to fast than go hungry?
I’m not going to argue the absurd, argue
That things are bad or going to get better.
We live in an age of immutable belief shaped
To write is to argue without evidence that beauty
pervades: the rainforest and the killing field,
sunsets and floods of acid rain on I-95.
We can never atone for the billions
spent on dark dreams
sawed through with ease,
To resist through nonviolence, yes—
I’ll do what the data says is wise.
But to love is another matter:
I may wave the flag, but I am no patriot;
Is it not better to burn what they betray?
Last week I had an interesting and telling experience at a conference, the topic of which was the exciting world of Financial Technology, or “fintech.”
This is where we come together,
Not before but after:
The blood already drained,
We refill it;
We never lack for blood to give.
Last week 1,000 Jews and allies
Surrounded ICE Headquarters in protest
Chanting Never Again
Like a shofar sounding pain
From Auschwitz to Gulag to Mount Sinjar