Good Bones

Posted on April 10, 2017 by stevieslaw

From Sarah Russell Poems

Sarah Russell's avatarSarah Russell Poetry

“Good Bones” went viral in 2016 when it was published in Waxwing.  It seemed to sum up all of our hopes and fears for our children.  Maggie Smith, who wrote “Good Bones,” has several award winning books and chapbooks.  You can read more about her here.

Life is short, though I keep this from my children.
Life is short, and I’ve shortened mine
in a thousand delicious, ill-advised ways,
a thousand deliciously ill-advised ways
I’ll keep from my children. The world is at least
fifty percent terrible, and that’s a conservative
estimate, though I keep this from my children.
For every bird there is a stone thrown at a bird.
For every loved child, a child broken, bagged,
sunk in a lake. Life is short and the world
is at least half terrible, and for every kind
stranger, there is one who would break you,
though I keep…

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Stevieslaw: Why I am not a vacuum cleaner salesman and footnotes

Posted on April 7, 2017 by stevieslaw

Why I am not a vacuum cleaner salesman*

Some people sell vacuum cleaners, door to door.
I do not. I was out late last night, celebrating
my 15th birthday with Richard Levine1. We
set all the garbage cans behind the apartments
on Hegemon2 Avenue on fire. Today,
I skipped school and wandered the odd streets
of Brooklyn, seeking mischief. No luck. At noon,
I met Jacob G.3 and we had lunch up on the avenue
at Joe’s deli4. I had a couple of franks with sauerkraut
and a potato knish. I told Jacob about Rachmaninoff5
playing in Irkutsk6 for Elizabeth Taylor7. He looked at me
funny. Perhaps he hadn’t seen the movie8.

After lunch, I ran into Jackson P9 and agreed
to meet him at the Livonia Ave. train yard10 that night.
Jackson P. is painting IRT cars. I’m often his look-out and
assistant—I shake the cans of dayglow paint. I met my
cousin Peter11 and we took the train uptown to see
the Yankees play. We didn’t have the dough so watched
from the elevated station12. Mickey Mantle13 hit one
home run right handed and one left handed. I grabbed two
franks with mustard, at Nedicks14, before heading home

I stopped off quickly at Pier 41 to see my Uncle
Frank15. It was deserted down by the piers and the ship,
The USS O’Hara, did not look that shipworthy. Frank was
deported to Ireland16 today, although he is Rumanian17.
I waved but no one appeared. I waved again anyway.

I made it home before the others. My mom sells stuff
at Mays18 downtown, my dad pushes a cab around
Manhatta19. My sister’s studying somewhere to cut hair.
They trudged in tired and more tired. My older brother20
came in after 8. He was carrying his vacuum cleaner sample
—it is heavy by 8. He didn’t sell any at all today, or yesterday
for that matter. He didn’t have much to say. We settled
down to franks and beans for dinner and tried,
blind tired, to find a warm spot to sleep in.

1 Childhood friend (CF), Commissioner of Police, NYC, 1978-1982. 2A street in Brooklyn that the trolly cars ran on. 3 CF. kia, Vietnam, 1969. 4 Pretty ordinary NY deli. 5 Pianist and Composer. 6 City in Russia, territory in the game Risk. 7 American actress and great beauty. 8Rhapsody (1954).9 African American graffiti artist, mia Vietnam. 10 Where the subway trains go to rest at night. 11 Forger and passer of bad checks, currently witness protection program. 12 Jerome Ave. stop of the old IRT. 13 Yankee great and Hall of Famer. 14 Famous for hot dogs and orange drinks. 15. Frank ran with Abe (kid twist) Reles and Murder Inc. 16Country that is sometimes in Europe. 17 Country that may someday be in Europe. 18 Department store in downtown Brooklyn. 19 What Frank O’Hara called manhattan, after first blaming it on the Indians. 20Barry, one true thing, RIP 2009.

* After, I am not a painter, by Frank O’Hara

 

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Stevieslaw: Steve “Wormtongue” Bannon goes home.

Posted on April 6, 2017 by stevieslaw

Stevieslaw: Steve “Wormtongue” Bannon goes home.

In a brief ceremony on the White House lawn today, Chief Advisor Wormtongue Bannon went to his final rest. Bannon slithered under a large rock, as a high school band played an up-tempo version of Totentanz (Dance of Death). The kazoo solo was memorable. Said White House spokesperson, Satin Faustus, “It’s a fairy tale ending for Steve.”

Groundskeepers reported that the trail of slime left by the slithering Bannon killed all the vegetation within 15 feet of his trail. Said the head-groundskeeper, “I’ve never seen grass and plants wither that quickly.”

An earlier story, circulated by the right wing media, had that Bannon was assassinated by a young girl from Kansas, accompanied by a tin man, a scarecrow and a cowardly lion. The assassination was purportedly accomplished by splashing Bannon with a glass of water. Tap water in the D.C. Area is known to be very, very toxic. That story was taken down after the slithering ceremony.

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Stevieslaw: Ryan signals that the E.O.D. to benefit from new health law.

Posted on April 5, 2017 by stevieslaw

Stevieslaw: Ryan signals that the E.O.D. to benefit from new health law.

Paul Ryan, who once again noted that there are winners and losers in any new legislation, said that while people with pre-existing conditions might be inconvenienced by the new health care law, the E.O.D. would be big winners.

“The rule was first adopted by Kansas Republicans after they killed the Medicaid expansion and consigned 150,000 people to life with no health care,” Ryan said. “Under the plan,” he continued, “the needy who volunteer as Emergency Organ and Body Part Donors would receive first class medical care not only for themselves, but for their immediate families (limited to a spouse and two children) as well. They simply need to be on call should a person of means require an organ or a body part.”

“All insurance is a gamble,” said Ryan, “Be it fire insurance or health care insurance. Perhaps someone with the necessary wealth to pay for a shoulder, hip, kidney or lung will never need one of yours. Perhaps they will. I’m sure many will consider it worth the risk.”

“Philosophically speaking,” continued Ryan, “compassionate Christian conservatives—especially those who owe a debt to Ayn Rand, have been trying to come up with an answer to the question, “Why poor people? Finally, we have found our answer.”

“God provides and Republicans harvest,” concluded Ryan.

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National Poetry Month

Posted on April 1, 2017 by stevieslaw

Source: National Poetry Month

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Stevieslaw: Rust Belt

Posted on March 30, 2017 by stevieslaw

My poem “rust belt,” just appeared in the new verse news. Here is the link.

http://TheNewVerse.News

and here is the poem.

Rust Belt

Sure, we loved the hats and hoopla

the rhythmic chants of lock her up,

but we are not a stupid people.

We know full well this patchy place

between the slag heaps

and the scrub pine–

these crumbling houses perched behind

the padlocked plant once known

for truck tires,

will never be great—

or even good.

 

You say rust belt

and mean the measure

of empty factories

and gutted storefronts.

The jobs bled out.

The eyesores left behind to moulder.

But the rust is mostly in us.

Too many years of children

born to little hope.

Too many years of promises

from windbags in dingy union halls

and air-conditioned buses

painted red, white, and blue.

 

This afternoon, I take my maul

to the wood pile

by the rusted chain link fence.

Crisp and clear,

It is a fine day to bust things up–

And the making

of that splintered shattered kindling

with a body that burns

is as near as I will ever come to joy.

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Stevieslaw: Trump’s Magical wall of wonder

Posted on March 29, 2017 by stevieslaw

Stevieslaw: Trump’s Magical Wall of Wonder

President Trump assured his fellow Americans that his proposed cuts to medical research at the NIH would not affect their health. “I have your backs,” he tweeted.

“My wall will be a magical wall,” he continued in just 24 characters. “The wall will not only keep out the bad hombres, it will also keep out those bad diseases created by evil foreigners who don’t look like us.”

“Remember Jack and his magical beanstalk? My magical wall will keep cancer, heart disease, diabetes and other bad microbie things from every entering the land of the free and the home of the brave.

“I am cutting the NIH budget simply because that money will no longer be needed. We will stop disease at its source—when the sneaky little buggers first try to sneak in,” he twittered.

Feel better now?

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Stevieslaw: Tom Price sees medicinal leeches in your future

Posted on March 27, 2017 by stevieslaw

Stevieslaw: Tom Price sees medicinal leeches in your future

The recent announcement by EPA Chief, Scott Pruitt, that Trump will sign an executive order on Tuesday repealing Obama’s signature Clean Power Plan has put Health Secretary Tom Price in a tight spot. As we have all been told, canceling Clean Power- a plan which restricts green house gas emissions at coal-fired power plants, will bring back millions of jobs in coal mining and reduce the cost of electricity by 95%.

Now, Tom Price has responded with at least as much verve and daring. Said Spokesperson, Saul Bledmore, “It’s been known since 1600 BC that bleeding by leeches is remedy for many of the maladies that afflict mankind—heart disease, cancer and stubborn warts. Medical professionals and researchers clearly understand the interaction of the four humors—blood, yellow bile, black bile and phlegm and how the balance of them affects human health. Often, health problems are associated with an excess of blood and the application of leeches is an effective and cost effective remedy.”

Bledmore went on to observe that the once thriving leech industry had been killed by government regulations. “Never again,” declared Bledmore. “We shall repeal the job destroying regulations and create hundreds of thousands of good American jobs in the leech industry—from raising leeches to using leeches.” “What’s more, he continued, “the use of leeches to cure all major diseases will eliminate the need for fancy medicines and reduce the cost of healthcare dramatically.”

“The future of American healthcare is in bloodletting,” conclude Dr. Bledmore.

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Stevieslaw: Republican tax reform to help low and middle income Americans

Posted on March 25, 2017 by stevieslaw

JUST KIDDING.

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Stevieslaw: Paul Ryan contemplates philosophical hari kari

Posted on March 23, 2017 by stevieslaw

Stevieslaw: Paul Ryan contemplates Philosophical suicide.

Paul Ryan told our own Smokey Diamond that he was deeply, deeply shamed that his health care law had to be withdrawn before a vote in the House. “There were simply not enough votes,” he said gravely.

When asked to describe his next step, Ryan said, “ I will don a three piece suit, a silk tie, and fine leather shoes and retire to the shrine of Ayn Rand. There, I will prepare my mind and body to perform an act of selflessness,” he said shamefacedly.

Selflessness, as we all know, is to followers of Ayn Rand—the so-called Objectivist Philosophers, much the same as committing Hari Kari was to a medieval Japanese warrior.

“Perhaps I might buy a poor person a sandwich,” said the crestfallen Ryan-clearly now a broken man.

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