Tag Archives: culture

-Ism Explained

Regarding this proverbial
Elephant In The Room:

there’s an Elephant in this room,
one in every room in fact,
and more than a few outside.

If you’re looking out the window
and you see an Elephant,
you say, “Hey! An Elephant!
Man, I’m glad there’s not one
in here!  I’d better not
go outside!”

You won’t see
The Elephant In Your Room
because you’re so busy watching
the one outside
for fear of it getting in.

If you do turn around
and see
The Elephant In The Room,

you’ll say,
“Hey!  An Elephant!
How’d that get in here?
What the fuck am I supposed
to do now?”

And you’ll sit very still
hoping the Elephant
doesn’t see you.

Unless, of course,
you’re inside
The Elephant,
in which case
you see nothing
at all, and don’t even know
it’s an Elephant.

Or, of course,
you could be
riding the Elephant:
directing it, training it
to be omnipresent,
invisible, rank
and ancient,
quiet and looming over
everyone, a utilitarian
threat
to break out
and mess
with everyone’s shit
big time,
all the time fully aware
that it doesn’t even need
to go rogue
to tear shit up,

and either way,
you’ll still be on top.


Thursday Afternoon Relief

Books about witch burnings
and occult spells
are cast loosely across the table
in the old wing of the town library.  

Two of the four chairs
pushed back,
as if in a holy hurry
to get away from all that.

Two beatdown high school girls,
gothically styled, 
making out
in the nearby stacks.

When they see me seeing them
they stare back, giggle,
move deeper
into the dark tall shelves.

A creased and torn Jack Chick tract 
with keno numbers in the margins
on the dented radiator cover
under the closest dirty window.

Put my head down
on the table,
feeling such joy that sometimes,
things do work out.


The Archaeology Did Not Mean To Oppress

The archaeology
did not mean to oppress.

It did what it could
to be fair. When faced
with the buried walls of
palaces, temples obscured
by history, all it had to offer
was interpretation flawed
because it had a starting point
and endgame predetermined,

as did the arts, the nutrition,
the design — all
wrapped in innocence
of their status as
oppressors, they simply
operated. 

The racist
canon,
the sexist couture,
the elitist diet,
the reductive archaeology

did not mean to enslave,
did not intend to erase
truth in favor of
agreement, silenced
wisdom, stunt
voices.  What they were made to do
they did faithfully, dumbly,
and well. 
It was hard for anyone
to imagine
once they were done,
except for those who
slipped through
by chance,
by hard lesson,
or by listening
to the whispers
mortared into those original,
ancient walls.

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