Monday, December 29, 2008

overheard

"You know a neighborhood is being gentrified when it gets a Doggie Style."
--young man to young woman, as they walked out of the chain boutique, 12th & Passyunk.

Sunday, December 21, 2008

Lost and Found

from The Philadelphia Inquirer, Monday, May 23, 1933

LOST—Dog, male, with harness; white with brown spot on
face & tail; in centre of city; answers to “Spike.”

LOST—Certificate of Naturalization No. 2, 400, 780. Rew.
Agostinho Antonio Barboza. 308 Pemberton st.

LOST—Brindle Bull. White mark neck & face, short tail
large eyes. Red collar. Vic. 28 & York. Rew. Spirit-
matter. 2230 W. Tioga

LOST—Bar pin with sapphires and Baroque pearl, going
from 20th and Locust sts. to 12th and Lycoming ave.
on Sunday Morning. Reward.

LOST—May 22. $50 bill btwn Widener Bldg & Wannamaker
Store. Rew.

LOST—Black & tan female puppy. 5 mos. old. name “Gipsy.”
Rew. 3024 E st.

Sunday, December 14, 2008

some more old news

Old News, the title of this blog, also happens to be the title of the book I'm writing, an ongoing narrative. I've posted pages of it here before, out of order. Now I'm posting pages 19-22 below, in order, which follow the page titled BRIDGE HERMIT STRANGELY KILLED, to give you some context; you can listen to the first 16 pages, in order, accompanied by music, here; these will also appear in the next ixnay reader. Later I may write on the blog a little about what I'm writing.

-----------------------------------------------------------------


odd jobs


i have many hearts

one’s a stick

i snap it over my knee


can’t help it

can’t help it


smoke

stacks

a big school

publics you out

ironfist pounds a cloud’s

all you got so what

so what


jobs jobs jobs



every 20 minutes


years ago you’d walk 20 minutes

in any direction

and there’d be another dialect

frankie tells rosanna

every 20 minutes no matter

what direction you walked

frankie’s tone never changes

i can’t tell if he laments

a more integrated yet homogenized

present or if he prefers it

he whistles right past me



conversation


you said if Bush won the election again we’d move to my country, she said.


i’m not ready to move yet, he said.


if you’re not ready now, you’ll never be.


i don’t know if i can move there. no offense, but your country’s pretty racist and classist.


you say the same thing about your country, she said.


it’s not the same. this country has essential freedoms that your country doesn’t.


such as what?


such as freedom of speech, he said.


we have freedom of speech, she said.


oh yeah, what happens if i protest the government because i disagree with them about something? huh? i disappear, that’s what happens. i disappear.


why would you be protesting the government? when do you protest the government here?


the whole way i live my life is a protest.


is it? well, you can live the same way in my country.


you don’t understand – look, it’s the principle of the matter. i need to know that i have that freedom.


this is why you are spoiled. this is why americans are spoiled.



presence


DREDGING = JOBS

duh

the walt whitman bridge is no cheaper

than the ben franklin

lay on the horn all you want

camden is poor

you know by looking at the dunkin donuts

america runs on dunkin

the present’s not a divider

the present’s a uniter

you know by looking at the dunkin donuts

walt whitman is buried in camden

ben franklin is buried in philadelphia

and the delaware river’s a zombie


Friday, December 5, 2008

chapbook recommendation

Check out The Reactionary Poems by Laura Jaramillo.
I posted a review of it on PhillySound, December 5th.

Laura will be reading with Cathleen Miller and Brandon Holmquest
next Saturday, 12/13 at Chapterhouse Cafe, 9th & Bainbridge.