Daily Archives: July 5, 2006

I’ve got job interviews this afternoon and a doctor’s appointment in a couple of hours, so this particular posting binge is coming to an end.

You know what this country’s political discourse needs more of? Cognitive dissonance. Both the right and the left are too comfortable with their preconceptions.

i’m going out and getting a “Support The Troops” ribbon and a peace sign for the car. I’ll get a “Pro-Choice” bumper sticker and paste it on next to one that reads “Clergy.”

Any other ideas? How can we promote cognitive dissonance that can challenge the prepackaging of political belief?


restraint

i am on the bed
with each wrist tied to the headboard
and each ankle tied to the footboard
with a blindfold over my eyes

this is the first time
that i am not
the one who ties the knots
not the doer but the one being done

all i have to do now
is be
and i’m terrified that i
will fail at it

how will i know
i’m doing this right
when i can do nothing
except experience it

the prospect of
hours and hours
of being unable
to act

while the window fan
blows hot air over my skin
and things happen
that i can’t see

she draws something soft
across my chest
she rubs something sticky
on my thighs

i can’t breathe
it’s all too pleasant
too much
i might cry

hours and hours
of being unable to act
i may never get
used to this

but for now
let being
supplant doing
there is so much to learn


4th of July

two flags
three houses apart
same wind
one flaps
the other lies dead
against its pole

i don’t think
it means anything more than
what looks like a steady wind
that should blow all flags the same way
sometimes isn’t

i’ve never spoken
to the neighbors
who own these flags

i’m buying a flag myself
tomorrow
two flags in fact
one old glory
one with a peace sign

i’ll hang them
on the same pole
and see what happens
see how each of them moves

the dead flag just snapped out straight
as if it has something to prove