Second draft…

OK. Some shifts, some significant, others less so.

I think this captures the vibe I wanted better — implied value judgment, done through details versus description — thanks to all.

THE ACTIVIST

Last Friday night
Jerry said to
Steve

“you can conjure up
damn near
anything you want these days —

if you can make anything happen it will happen
as long as there’s money in it
anyone who has to bleed to make it happen bleeds elsewhere

f’r instance, let’s talk about
your workout Nikes
which you can afford at least in part because

of cheap blood on cheaper needles
in Singapore or
Hong Kong

and those imported strawberries you’re eating
in fact, everything you do to stay so
improbably slender

you can do because
someone somewhere
bleeds to make it happen

so many illusions and dreams in this country
only exist because
someone’s back is bent and raw elsewhere in the world”

Jerry said all this to Steve
while tapping on the keyboard
with his impeccably tailored hands

under the cool light
of an Italian design
lamp

while seated in brushed
cotton khakis
on a burnished cowhide chair

and Steve felt humbled and properly
chastened for one moment
then chalked the diatribe up

to Jerry’s
passion for
condescension

(but secretly knew
he’d be checking his labels more closely
from now on)

and they bickered a bit more
while waiting for dinner
to come to the door from

Imperial China
the restaurant on the corner
where the delivery man, Nguyen Van Tu, who had been a mechanic in Saigon

back before it changed its name to Ho Chi Minh City
smoked one last Marlboro Red before
stepping out into the street with his orders

only to slip and fall under the wheels of the crosstown bus that
carried so many people home
from their late jobs

all those dinners
were scattered all over
the street that was black with rain

when the wailing ambulance finally arrived
Jerry got up from the keyboard
and slammed the window shut

saying
“Steve we’ve got to think about moving
the neighborhood was so cheap when we moved in

but I swear the last couple of years
it’s gotten so bad
for what we pay we shouldn’t have to put up with all this racket”

then the restaurant owner called to say the
dry string beans and
strange flavor chicken

would be late and Jerry
cancelled the order
entirely

in a snit he swore
never to eat
at the Imperial China again

before clicking off
the MoveOn
website

to write an impassioned letter
about globalization
to his representative

(all the time watching his words
to avoid angering anyone
unnecessarily)

Steve’s in the next room when
Jerry calls to him
“hey Steve what do you think of this line —

the problem with our policies of globalization
is that the wrong people
are always bleeding”

Steve says
“yes I like that
I like it just fine”