Reincarnation of an Uncle Sam [This Week's News Poem by Khakjaan Wessington, October 5, 2012]

Reincarnation of an Uncle Sam [This Week's News Poem by Khakjaan Wessington, October 5, 2012]

Step inside the showroom of the Republic.

First, address your faith, or lack thereof.

Every flavor of God's for sale; try a domestic brand.

Nobody should leave godless, but we all can err.

Leaven your mood: consult with our experts.

Contemplate your life while we minister to your pain.

Uncle Sam's carnival, garish, executive polish.

“Am I a pimp? You know I am a religious man.”

“That's not a denial Sam.”

Awareness of persuasion increases our resistance.

When we're offered what we want, we cooperate.

I have everything and what I allow is outrageous.

Do you want to live forever?

I have doctors who can help with that.

Do you want to love forever? Same.

My stars and stripes aggress your eyes,

My costume is my work; I change minds

With physique, reason, interruption and other means of persuasion.

There are gestures that suppress free minds,

Forms of dominant eye contact;

Saying nothing well, and with a smile

is the

Uncle Sam everybody loves,

and fears—better fear

than love.

“President Barack Obama's lead over challenger Mitt Romney has narrowed to just two percentage points since the Republican's strong performance in their first debate, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Friday.”

—Patricia Zengerle, WASHINGTON | Fri Oct 5, 2012 3:28pm EDT

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/05/us-usa-campaign-poll-idUSBRE8931E420121005

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Garden of Eaten [Both Parts, Today's News Poem, March 26, 2010]

Garden of Eaten [Today's News Poem, March 26, 2010]
“Obama administration officials on Friday ramped up their attempts to help struggling homeowners, announcing major changes to the government's much-criticized $75-billion program to modify mortgages to avoid foreclosures.”
--By Jim Puzzanghera, Los Angeles Times, March 26, 2010 | 10:08 a.m.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-obama-mortgages27-2010mar27,0,6966492.story

I)
In a room of one's own
Close to all agitprop,
With an equity loan
All the assets will pop.

Up in value they soared
As the experts declared
That the value was stored
In diplomas they bared.

On computers all day—
All those hours inside—
I was shut in at play
While the wilderness died.

And I loved to fear death,
And enjoyed the cruel mist;
Does she still pass through breath?
Are her savages missed?

I'm already entombed
In a casing of spires:
While economies boom
My dear nature expires.

II)

Who stumbles up the snowy mountain, drunk?
Who starts in afternoon?
Who leaves his flashlight on the bedroom trunk
While seeking nature's boon?

And sweating on a cliff of hardened ice
Accepting death by chill;
Who praises deadly peaks and winter's slice,
When storms deplete his will?

In darkness we're conceived—in dark, I slouched.
And blind, I reached the room
Upon a peak of blizzard--shelter-couched--
Inside a wooden womb.



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Garden of Eaten [Today's News Poem, March 26, 2010]

Garden of Eaten [Today's News Poem, March 26, 2010]
“Obama administration officials on Friday ramped up their attempts to help struggling homeowners, announcing major changes to the government's much-criticized $75-billion program to modify mortgages to avoid foreclosures.”
--By Jim Puzzanghera, Los Angeles Times, March 26, 2010 | 10:08 a.m.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-obama-mortgages27-2010mar27,0,6966492.story

In a room of one's own
Close to all agitprop,
With an equity loan
All the assets will pop.

Up in value they soared
As the experts declared
That the value was stored
In diplomas they bared.

On computers all day—
All those hours inside—
I was shut in at play
While the wilderness died.

And I loved to fear death,
And enjoyed the cruel mist;
Does she still pass through breath?
Are her savages missed?

I'm already entombed
In a casing of spires:
While economies boom
My dear nature expires.



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Paean to Zero

Paean to Zero [Today's News Poem, March 9, 2010]

““How many people would like a proposal that holds insurance companies more accountable?””
--President Obama, quoted by Helene Cooper and David M. Herszenhorn, The New York Times, March 8, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/09/health/policy/09health.html?hpw

“The Senate on Tuesday cleared a hurdle to extending unemployment benefits and health-care subsidies for the jobless until year's end, the latest modest bipartisan success on jobs and the economy.”
--Naftali Bendavid, The Wall Street Journal, March 9, 2010
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704784904575111932101937268.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

Enumerate the many traits
Of zero: emptiness we count.
A means to lock the many rates
Of nothing into meaning's mount.

A decimal to part the naught
From value. Commas place the rank
Of triplet nothings—lined-up aughts—
That, with some law, can fund a bank.

A dead soul fetches something still—
And better that we never pay
What's sure to be a deadly bill.
And best? The debt for kids at play

Right now, will teach them gratitude
In ways a kid can get: we're first!
Don't coddle them, bad attitudes
Are made by sating whiny thirsts.

A promise made of nothing keeps
So long as faith remains its worth
Is more than discrete parts; it leaps
From voids, to banks, to shipping berths.

The world depends on empty brands
To animate production's cause:
Without false promises, the hands
Of workers turn to angry jaws

And bite the feeding hand of Smith:
The money's value's just a myth.



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Settling the Healthcare Debate [Bonus, Fuck Around Poem, March 4, 2010]

Settling the Healthcare Debate [Bonus, Fuck Around Poem, March 4, 2010]

“the key divide between Obama and Republicans is philosophical: Democrats generally are confident that an enlarged role for government can help rein in costs, even as it expands healthcare coverage to more Americans. Republicans favor new efforts to harness marketplace forces, while targeting specific programs to reduce the number of uninsured.”
--Mark Trumbull, Christian Science Monitor, March 4, 2010

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2010/0304/Will-Obama-s-healthcare-plan-reduce-costs

Light! Behold the crown of horns...
Beastly? Wrong! Our child newborn...
Horrible it's true—and yet
Wonderful. We're fit! I bet
Other mothers never know
Pain like this... at least she grows.
Genes determine fate above
Governments and gods. My love!
Quieter my love. Our bean,
Baby girl; she feeds on spleen
Now, but later she will nest
Deep within my upper chest.

Humankind too long's had faith...
Smoggish men exist like wraiths
Murdering by ounce or mole.
Poison's now the new control
Slaving people's flesh. Diseased?
Certainly. With meds it's eased.
Hospitals collect the debt:
Life for life—I'll sooner die.
Baby girl, end daddy's set.
Eat me. Eat them sweetie pie.

Teach that evolution
Holds healthcare's true solution.



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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.



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Missile Man's Mini-Truth [Today's News Poem, Feb 26, 2010]

Missile Man's Mini-Truth [Today's News Poem, Feb 26, 2010]

“Obama, who established the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform after the Congress failed to create a similar panel, nominated four new members after choosing Republican and Democratic chairmen earlier this month.
The president named Honeywell Chief Executive David Cote”
--Jeff Mason, Fri Feb 26, 2010 1:04pm EST
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE61P3LS20100226?type=politicsNews

The last indignity for me I think was when
I grew enough to understand George Orwell's book—
You know of Nineteen Eighty Four I'm sure. Again,
The shock humiliated me: the masters took

His doublespeak and used it brazenly to lie
In slick and modern tones. I can't believe to top
It off, they've cheek to claim we beat Big Bro. They're sly.
They shoot us with their mini-truths: by press, by cop;

By missile-man—a spy I bet—who's there to split the take,
To tend to backroom deals for sake of fellow crooks and rakes.



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At Home, in Room 101 [Today's News Poem, Feb 17, 2010]

At Home, in Room 101 [Today's News Poem, Feb 17, 2010]

“President Obama defended his year-old economic recovery package on Wednesday, arguing that the package, the major legislative achievement of his presidency so far, has created or saved as many as two million new jobs, lowered taxes for 95 percent of Americans and spared the country a potentially disastrous depression.”
–Sheryl Gay Stolberg
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/18/us/politics/18obama.html

“Other officials, however, appeared worried that dumping mortgage debt into a fragile market might drive up home loan rates, compromising what tentative stabilization has been achieved in housing... Still, there was active discussion on the principle behind it -- that the time might be nearing for a pullback. ”
--Reuters, Feb 17, 2010; 2:39pm ET
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2010/02/17/business/business-us-usa-fed-minutes.html

“Treasurys also saw losses accelerate after minutes from the Federal Reserve's last meeting on monetary policy revealed several members wanted the Fed to sell assets in the near future. ”
--Nick Godt, Marketwatch, Feb 17, 2010
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/treasurys-drop-after-data-greek-debt-woes-ease-2010-02-17

On live teevee I saw the Head of State
Ascend. The Chairman also lifted off;
They hovered. Doubting what I saw, the late
Or later show at first provoked a scoff;
But moved to tears I saw the clips once more
Online and cursed again my skeptical,
And anti-patriotic—lonely—core.
I'll be a media receptacle
Forever, once I learn to see
What others see on live teevee.



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