Subscribe to Toylit

Showing posts with label New York Times. Show all posts
Showing posts with label New York Times. Show all posts

Friday, April 09, 2010

Demob? Crazy! [Today's News Poem, April 9, 2010]

Demob? Crazy! [Today's News Poem, April 9, 2010]
“The acting head of the government, Roza Otunbayeva, said at a news conference that the president, Kurmanbek S. Bakiyev, had been offered safe passage into exile if he agreed to step down... Mr. Bakiyev, who fled to the south of the country on Wednesday, has refused to give up power and has made vague threats about trying to re-establish his authority... As many as 75 people were killed and more than 400 were wounded when riot police officers opened fire on antigovernment demonstrators here on Wednesday, provoking a violent backlash that left many of those same police officers bloodied and running for their lives. Protesters burned and looted government buildings and businesses, and President Bakiyev was forced to flee.”
-Michael Schwartz, The New York Times, April 9, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/10/world/europe/10kyrgyz.html?src=mv

If titles are irrelevant
Why bother saying 'Presidents?'
Must blind men fondle elephants
To hear the charge and resonance
Of feet that bear the mass of fate?
And why would they waste time with chat?
Enumerate the style and gait
Of that which seeks to crush them flat?
The early humans nearly died
Before they took to spear and axe—
Before they learned to hunt in prides,
They fled from beasts and wild attacks.
When prey evolves from tribe to mob
Then riot gear cannot defeat
What's otherwise dismissed by snobs.
The rioters must eat elites.

Support independent publishing: Buy this book on Lulu.

Subscribe in a reader

Sunday, March 07, 2010

Fauna2.0 [Today's News Sonnet, March 7, 2010]

Fauna2.0 [Today's News Sonnet, March 7, 2010]

“Could this Chinese Year of the Tiger be the last one with actual tigers still afoot in the world’s wild?”
--Bill Marsh, The New York Times, March 6, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/07/weekinreview/07marsh.html

For every peer we've ever had—we've slain,
Enslaved, diminished—well, we have their plans.
The charismatic megafauna wanes
And yet we've archived what they were. Life's span
Extends quite well: magnetic drives, by code.
In symbol... signs emerge until the two
Are one. Both data, matter: simply modes
Or monads, swimming ignorant in brew,
In petri dishes we've devised to scope
The evidence of God in every cell.
In every scrap of living parts we hope
To find the proof that we are what we tell
Ourselves we seek: that we are what we saw—
The savior human! One of nature's laws.

Support independent publishing: Buy this book on Lulu.

Subscribe in a reader

Thursday, March 04, 2010

A Lie is Just an Alternate Epistemology [Today's News Poem, March 4, 2010]

A Lie is Just an Alternate Epistemology [Today's News Poem, March 4, 2010]

“The linkage of evolution and global warming is partly a legal strategy: courts have found that singling out evolution for criticism in public schools is a violation of the separation of church and state. By insisting that global warming also be debated, deniers of evolution can argue that they are simply championing academic freedom in general.”
--Leslie Kaufman, New York Times, March 3, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/04/science/earth/04climate.html?hp

Deception always wins because the truth
Meets the biggest lies at middle ground,
And being truth, it cedes enough terrain.
Method needs Good Faith of trade to sleuth,
Or else the brazen slur their twists to sound
Truthful. Words resemble air for brains—
A poisonous miasma we must breathe:
Venom hides in words deceivers seethe.

Support independent publishing: Buy this book on Lulu.

Subscribe in a reader

Wednesday, March 03, 2010

Fanfare for the Common Crook, Part One [Today's News Poem, March 3, 2010]

Fanfare for the Common Crook, Part One [Today's News Poem, March 3, 2010]

“Mr. Johnson also attended the World Series game in question and was involved in soliciting the tickets from Yankees officials. The tickets, with a face value of $425 each, were for seats a few rows behind home plate.”
--Nicholas Confessore, and David M. Halbfinger, The New York Times, March 3, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/04/nyregion/04paterson.html?hp

“For the second time in two days, Racine police arrested a shoplifter who went on the attack when confronted by store personnel... Reports said the 23-year-old security guard watched Budner take the $179 coffee maker and then walk past the last point of purchase at JCPenney Tuesday just after 6 p.m. The guard told officers he chased Budner, who fled out the northwest doors of the store, across the parking lot into the Applebee's restaurant parking lot. ”
--MARCI LAEHR TENUTA, The Journal Times, March 3, 2010 12:46 pm
http://www.journaltimes.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/article_5454bf0e-26f5-11df-b45c-001cc4c03286.html

Accusing me of being high? I'm low!
And lower all the time. So what? I took
A piece of crap. It wasn't worth much dough.
You treat me like another sort of crook!
Just look at David Paterson. He stole
From New York state enough to burn in hell:
Indulging him because he rode a poll
And throwing desperates like me in cells
Because confusing rules of theft and gift...
I will admit my ignorance of laws.
I might not know the proper ways to sift;
To play the legal code and use its flaws
But isn't there a code all thieves can use?
To see what is legit and what's abuse?

Support independent publishing: Buy this book on Lulu.

Subscribe in a reader

Tuesday, March 02, 2010

Progress to Stasis: Immortal [Bonus News Poem, March 2, 2010]

Progress to Stasis: Immortal [Bonus News Poem, March 2, 2010]
“To answer Republican criticism of a proposed expansion of Medicaid, the federal-state insurance program for low-income Americans, he said he agreed it would be helpful to increase payment rates to doctors "in a fiscally responsible manner."”
-David M. Herszenhorn and Robert Pear, New York Times, March 2, 2010

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/03/health/policy/03health.html?hp

The legends tell of war—of scholars, emperors,
And murder most especially—of towns of men—
Of cities moving spear and cart. They conquered whores—
Once free, but booty since—their children caged in pens.
An age of war gave way to one of war and trade.
Instead of taking kids by sword and chain, the boat
Became the modern way. An age of bloody raid!
Of riches thralls create on rocky soil like goats.
But every good must end. This wealth, for now, secures
A livelihood for all—but what of venal hopes?
The immortality it's said that cash procures
Can fund an age of medicine with banking tropes.
For banks subsume the score of war: a meritocracy
Where booze and drugs and suit-dressed thugs serve gerontocracy.

Support independent publishing: Buy this book on Lulu.

Subscribe in a reader

Don't Call it Devolution [Bonus News Poem March 2, 2010]

Don't Call it Devolution [Bonus News Poem March 2, 2010]

“An unusually intense Supreme Court argument Tuesday showed that the justices remain bitterly divided about the meaning and scope of the Second Amendment. And it suggested that the five-justice majority in the 2008 decision that first identified an individual right to keep and bear arms was prepared to take another major step in subjecting gun control laws to constitutional scrutiny.”
--New York Times, Adam Liptak, March 2, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/03/us/03scotus.html

Rebel my friends and bear your arms
And shoot at pipes and power lines.
And loot the food until the farms
Are tapped and overgrown with pines.
The crows enjoy the shallow graves
That overflow and spill their rot
Of plague. No medicines will save
The ones who murdered doctors (shot
With ample ammo) with their guns,
Who used it up and shot what's left.
The madness watched by distant suns
When human life on Earth's bereft
Of self-control, we'll live by rants
And all regress to army ants.

Support independent publishing: Buy this book on Lulu.

Subscribe in a reader

Revenge of the Mud People [Today's News Poem, March 2, 2010]

Revenge of the Mud People [Today's News Poem, March 2, 2010]

“Because of this buffering action, culture was thought to have blunted the rate of human evolution, or even brought it to a halt, in the distant past.”
--Nicholas Wade, March 1, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/02/science/02evo.html?8dpc

Eugenicists have often said
Our species weakens as it's bred
With imbeciles who reproduce
At faster rates; and thus reduce
Intelligence collectively.
At times the masters actively
Conspire to cull a populace.
I say we find the proper place
For every trait—from theft to art.
The brain survives on other parts:
A plague could kill most humankind,
Exterminate our finest minds—
For now, on tech we might depend;
But when it's gone, what's left to fend
For us but selves? Our cells, our genes,
Our friends, our clans—our very means
Of life depends on traits unknown
Since death cares not for what we hone.
And since in death and life the test
Of merit lies—in not who's best,
But rather those who live in peace
And leave behind no single piece
Of who we are, or were, or seek
To be—in those who shelter weak
And gentle beings—in them our blood's
Ennobled: lifted from the mud.

Support independent publishing: Buy this book on Lulu.

Subscribe in a reader

Saturday, February 27, 2010

Dodging Nature [Bonus News Poem Feb 27, 2010]

Dodging Nature [Bonus News Poem Feb 27, 2010]

“Gerard Fryer, a geophysicist at the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Ewa Beach, Hawaii, told The Associated Press that the state had “dodged a bullet” after a major earthquake in Chile a half-day earlier had caused tsunami warnings to be issued for most of the Pacific basin.”
--Charles E. Roessler and Eric Lipton, New York Times, February 27, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/28/us/28warning.html

When ocean yawns, it stretches tips of waves
Before emerging from the depths with tides
And swells that carve the land: the grotto-caves,
The beasts the plants: the sea discerns no sides.
The water threatens everything—and yet
Despite its threat, the drowning's just a pet
Of continents, of moon, of unknown types
Of influence we've yet to understand—
A force indifferent to flags and stripes:
To reason, God; or any hopeful brand
Of humanism touting our control.
We lie for peace. So what? It might console
Our kids. Who cares what humankind extols?

Support independent publishing: Buy this book on Lulu.

Subscribe in a reader

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Tragedy of the Commons [Today's News Poem, Feb 14, 2010]

Tragedy of the Commons [Today's News Poem, Feb 14, 2010]

“The crisis in Greece poses the most significant challenge yet to Europe’s common currency, the euro, and the Continent’s goal of economic unity. The country is, in the argot of banking, too big to be allowed to fail. Greece owes the world $300 billion, and major banks are on the hook for much of that debt. A default would reverberate around the globe. “
–The New York Times, Louise Story, Landon Thomas Jr., and Nelson D. Schwartz.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/14/business/global/14debt.html?hp

The tragedy of common spaces
Reveals itself in urban texting—
In cars and trucks and bikers: laces.
They're graphed as rays and find it vexing
To foil themselves for other faces.
'Fulfill the self,' a form of hexing:
A fear from all inspires their races—
They're paranoid, except for sexing.

We strive for freedom, hence we seek a yield.
While money stores our work as energy—
It plays security in trade, a shield
From naught—it also fuels our liturgy-
Anxieties. In excess, wealth can wield
Itself and needs no other synergy:
So wealth exaggerates the jagged field;
The poor lose hope and fail to lethargy.

Karl Marx once wrote that capital's a vampire sucking work from living hosts.
We've many dooms to choose: unseen and mighty hands we pray are God's;
Or atheistic Bolsheviks; just call on revolution's ghosts—
Or fuck it all and everyone, this world was made to pit us all at odds.

Support independent publishing: Buy this book on Lulu.

Subscribe in a reader

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Zoology [Today's News Poem, Feb 13, 2010]

Zoology [Today's News Poem, Feb 13, 2010]

“It didn't happen. There's no way .... they are still alive.”
--Amy Bishop

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jFo5VigoTH0_SUARIYqoUf7P9ziwD9DRIE501

“The shootings on the university campus opened a window into the pressure-cooker world of biotechnology start-ups, where scientists often depend on their association with academia for a leg up.”
--Shaila Dewan and Liz Robbins, NYT

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/14/us/14alabama.html

http://www.thugreport.com/

A pressure cooker, right? A princess takes
The world by right—her flesh is good: it's white.
She's not an animal. The 'black man' fakes
His decent traits, but her, she fakes her fight—
“It didn't happen,” right? “They're still alive”
She said—that's right. Just ask the news—like you
It wants to know how snow can act like jive-
Ass darkies. Whites with burdens tend imbue
Their sacrifice for darker folks with tragedy.
The blacks just suffer less: their pains are comedy.

Support independent publishing: Buy this book on Lulu.

Subscribe in a reader

Friday, February 12, 2010

The Nazis Won [Today's News Poem, Feb 12, 2010]

The Nazis Won [Today's News Poem, Feb 12, 2010]
Khakjaan Wessington

“For the second time in less than five weeks, China’s central bank has moved to limit lending to consumers and businesses by ordering big commercial banks to park a larger share of their deposits at the central bank. The step, announced late Friday, came earlier than most economists had expected and was aimed at forestalling a rekindling of inflation by controlling a rapid expansion in bank loans. Families, real estate developers and industrial companies have been borrowing heavily and have started paying more for everything from food to apartments.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/13/business/global/13yuan.html

The dictionary's buttressed—scholars, publishers,
And interests determine how its read, applied
And otherwise abused—despite how language-roots
Grow deep within the common use. These thought-fissures
We see in words like 'Fascism:' it's oft denied
In case right here. America has tax jackboots

And threats of killer debts because the contractors
Can cover loans by governmental guarantee
Of pay: they borrow all the cash—we can't compete.
Who risks on tiny business? Nuclear-reactors
Will generate a yield for sure, the bourgeoisie
Are safer allocations unlike most main-streets.

Main Street: a flow of cars—of bars, electric wires.
To squash the meats without a shell; to keep the thieves
Away from Mine, to burn the birds to death: with tires
Or current, desperation sells: it hurts, it weaves

The means to close the deal: the cars will sell,
And suicide's against the law, so profits swell
At burger joints that own this land: don't call it hell.

Friday, February 05, 2010

I Cut My Hair [Today's News Poem, Feb 5, 2010]

I Cut My Hair [Today's News Poem, Feb, 5, 2010]

“Shares were mixed in the last hour, with Wall Street indexes bouncing back after being down more than 1.5 percent. Indexes had been rattled for most of the day by concerns that that large deficits in Europe could hobble the global recovery, even as the American labor market showed signs of improving. “
““The fear is what happens if the recovery in Europe rolls over into a double-dip recession,” said Hank B. Smith, chief investment officer for Haverford Investments. “It creates uncertainty as we wait to see how this relatively young experiment, the European Union, deals with this crisis.” “

--Javier C Hernandez and Matthew Saltmarsh

“Economists say the Chinese yuan is undervalued and its exchange rate gap against other currencies has actually widened since the yuan-dollar peg ended in 2005. ”

--UPI, Feb 5, 2010, 1:12am

“A rapid drop in the Dollar versus the Yuan would result in almost immediate, and major import substitution by US producers. Until inflation is tamped out, it will continue to drop the cost of US manufactures compared to foreign manufacturers. It would be a deathblow to European industries, which would need to respond with even more protectionism. Airbus is already on the ropes - a 20% drop in the dollar would see almost every plane order in the world for the next five years going to Boeing. Multiply this across every industry where the EU is barely competitive with the rest of the world and you can see that a disaster is brewing, not for the US, but for Europe. China would lose its target market for exports and its domestic consumption won't be able to make up for the difference.”
--Khakjaan Wessington, exile.ru, 11.17.2006

A friend, a 'fag', once toured me through
The neighborhood from whence he came.
In Michigan, Detroit, his crew
Of drinking mates were friends—the same
He knew when growing up. His dad,
A mop and soap school janitor
Had bought a drink for me. The fad
For longish hair was gone—I wore
It long and didn't think
They'd think I was a faggy dink.

They'd seen a war I never knew
Before—while driving past the stores
With bars my paranoia grew.
Four crime scenes later? This was war—
A kind that hated popinjays
And frizzy hair and poet's ways.
“Don't look at anyone,” (the craze
Around there—shoot at any gaze)
He said, we looked at lots
Where homes and happy thoughts

Were once extant. I asked the cause
From everyone I met. Some said
That after riots darkie's claws
Destroyed their town. “Horseshit! You're fed
The hate another stokes. You cheer
For causes lacking moral heft.
Because of living here, the fear
Of losing work should drive you left!”
I later fled to home,
To California's foam,

To folks with work, who didn't fear
What happens when they lose their job—
Who didn't think long hair was queer,
Who weren't afraid enough to rob
And die for fists of cash to pay
For gas, for food. They liked long hair
And told me so. For that, I cut
It buzz. I didn't want to blare
My vanity before these sluts
And gigolos with clap
Who cared for fashion's crap.

Support independent publishing: Buy this book on Lulu.

Subscribe in a reader

Monday, January 25, 2010

Ernst and Röhm [Today's News Poem]

Ernst and Röhm

By Khakjaan Wessington

“...reverse the overall erosion in middle class security...”
-President Obama, The New York Times, Jan 25, 2010,
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/26/us/politics/26obama.html

A specter haunting President Obama haunts
The textbooks, episodes of History Channel.
In film the Fuhrer dies by it—it saved a gaunt
And saintly Private Ryan. Secretly, panels
Of Koch executives gloat as Teabag pawns fight
For vassalage. 'Aren't Ernst and Röhm the tax people,'
I've heard them ask. Security from thought—to spite
Their loneliness, they seek control of courts, steeples.
Oh Hannah Arendt dance with me, don't dance too deep—
A squad of goons are coming into town: beep beep!

Support independent publishing: Buy this book on Lulu.


Subscribe in a reader