Cattle Car [Today's News Poem by Khakjaan Wessington, September 28, 2012]

Cattle Car [Today's News Poem by Khakjaan Wessington, September 28, 2012]

The pen is obsolete, the screen is ticklish;

Every fingernail's a pixelated gesture:

Paragon of monitor, awaiting upload.

The driver's obsolete. The auto automat

Carpets chassis, asphalt, neutralizes hunger,

Activates the appetite and catches french fries.

The herd complains as geese, or sirens; stabbing horns,

Chewing crud or chips or bubblegum and blowing

Sculptures from our mouths; we are the art of ourselves.

“Corn futures surged nearly 6 percent on the Chicago Board of Trade after the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported corn stocks on September 1 were below 1 billion bushels for the first time in eight years. Wheat futures rose more than 5 percent, topping $9 a bushel after the data showed stockpiles were 7 percent less than forecast. ”

—Reuters, Charles Abbott, WASHINGTON | Fri Sep 28, 2012 4:27pm EDT

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/09/28/us-usa-crops-idUSBRE88R1EX20120928

Follow us on Twitter @Khakjaan
Return to Toylit
Subscribe to Toylit

Declining Momentum [Today's News Poem, April 3, 2011]

Declining Momentum [Today's News Poem, April 3, 2011]

The concrete is cracking and punctures your tires,
Yet celebrate roots pushing pavement apart.
The birds are returning, they nest in the alder,
And shit on the sidewalk you hate—do not hate;
It's time for renewal—the wheels must stop spinning.

"Tokyo Electric Power is struggling to block a crack discovered in a pit that is leaking highly radioactive water into the ocean at its Fukushima Daiichi plant, and said it had discovered the bodies of its two missing employees at the stricken plant. "
—Lindsay Whipp in Tokyo, The Financial Times, Published: April 2 2011 17:09 | Last updated: April 3 2011 08:34
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/9d7b6070-5d40-11e0-a008-00144feab49a.html

"As Southwest Airlines canceled 300 flights throughout the country after one of its jets developed a hole in its roof during a flight, Bay Area travelers Saturday had hit-or-miss experiences getting to and from their destinations."
—Lisa Fernandez and Doug Jastrow, Bay Area News Group, Posted: 04/02/2011 09:37:19 PM PDT, Updated: 04/02/2011 10:20:22 PM PDT

Return to Toylit
Subscribe to Toylit

Rat Maze [Today's News Poem, February 27, 2011]

Rat Maze [Today's News Poem, February 27, 2011]

Over capacity, under the freeway,
Next to the tower of smog—yes the thunder's
Alive, not like Thor, but like eyes that observe
The mazes of pageantry, splendor of rats.
Wedged in a corner of pavement; the rodents
Halve and are mice, halve and are newborns—
Divide to the zygote, to ova and sperm.
Repeating division, the dead are reborn,
Branching through time as the life-form imagines,
Mates and then dies, is reborn in the fragments:
Cast origami of proteins unfolding
Building a lattice of mazes just like it.

"... there are warning signs that China could soon suffer from the same overcapacity that has long afflicted the United States and Europe. Half of the executives surveyed by KPMG, the accounting firm, believe that China will have too many automotive plants within five years, according to a study that KPMG published in January."
—JACK EWING, The New York Times, February 27, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/28/business/global/28iht-cars28.html

Return to Toylit
Subscribe to Toylit

Anonymous is Legion [Today's News Poem, February 13, 2011]

Anonymous is Legion [Today's News Poem, February 13, 2011]

How did things get so anonymous?
How did the face disappear in crowds?
Lost to the fashion bazaar, to the smoke
Sputtering out of the cigarette

Butts, from the asses of motorcars;
Gasses that seep from the sewer grill
Blessed with the fragrance of piggies on fire:
Embryos far from the factory.

How did we get so anonymous?
Hundreds of armpits in silent trains,
Thousands of anuses walking the street,
Millions of tears, condominiums

Stacked with the snot of the desperate
Snoozing alarms to deflect the days:
Someone must benefit, someone must own,
Know, understand this impersonal cloud.

"Tracing the money is likely to be difficult because business in Egypt was largely conducted in secret among a small group connected to Mr. Mubarak... Estimates of the Mubaraks’ fortune vary wildly, including a widespread rumor that they are worth as much as $70 billion. United States officials say that figure is vastly exaggerated and put the family’s wealth at $2 billion to $3 billion."
—NEIL MacFARQUHAR, DAVID ROHDE and ARAM ROSTON, The New York Times, Published: February 12, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/13/world/middleeast/13wealth.html

Return to Toylit
Subscribe to Toylit

Prison Camp [Today's News Poem, November 10, 2010]

Prison Camp [Today's News Poem, November 10, 2010]

Oakland is litter—no. Cities are clutter.
High on the yeast that ferments in the nostrils
Launched from the bakery, everyone's woozy.
Fitting: it's dirty with diapers, its buildings
Sag with the soot of the factories, autos...
Effluent oozes—it's pus from the wounded.
Oceans of tuna are buried in trash bags—
Coffins of tin are ensconced with the buzzing.
Choppers and flies are the halos—the patrons
Oakland attracted. It concentrates armor,
Concrete and grayness together with morsels
Locked in a circle of freeway and train tracks:
Locked in a bottle of yeast and its droppings—
Camped in a garden of bullets and garbage.

"Another unarmed Black brother, Derrick Jones, 37, a beloved Oakland barbershop owner and father of an infant girl, met a violent death on Monday night, Nov. 8, 2010, shot and killed by two white Oakland police officers while “fleeing,” after they “thought” they saw a metallic object in his hand. This is the third OPD officer-involved homicide of people of color in 2010."
—Mesha Monge-Irizarry, Idriss Stelley Foundation, The San Francisco Bay View, November 10, 2010
http://sfbayview.com/2010/what-part-of-%E2%80%98killed_unarmed_black_man-murder%E2%80%99-doesn%E2%80%99t-opd-understand/

Buy the Q1/Q2 2010 Report right now:

Return to Toylit Subscribe in a reader