Stimulation Simulation [News Poem (Sonnet) March 12, 2010]

Stimulation Simulation [News Poem (Sonnet) March 12, 2010]

“Two suicide bombers killed 43 people in near-simultaneous blasts Friday, the fourth major attack in Pakistan this week and a clear sign that militants have the power to strike targets despite months of army offensives and U.S. missile strikes.”
-BABAR DOGAR and TIM SULLIVAN (AP) – 1 hour ago as of 12:43pm PST, March 12, 2010
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iY68JOyNIHbng1p0gU3svyBH9g3gD9ED97200

The simulated life has everything
But extra lives, a pause, a game-save point.
Command and conquer: take to drone-craft wing,
Or watch a thousand penises anoint
The one who was your soul-mate in past lives.
Debasing love and murder, playing games
With actresses and aircraft—what survives
Of awe, revulsion, beauty? Playing maims
When done like this: we have no sympathy
To spare—we weep in fraction, actor's tears,
And dole, in millionths, faithless empathy
To those we've trapped in mechanistic gears—
Until you see a man with tear-dried eyes
Explode his vest: then everybody cries.



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In the middle of writing the News Poem right now.

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Gold to Ash [Bonus News Poem March 11, 2010]

Gold to Ash [Bonus News Poem March 11, 2010]

“India, which has tripled its defense spending in a race against China’s military buildup, is having trouble converting the funding into weapons and equipment its military says are urgently needed.”
-James Rupert, Bloomberg, March 11, 2010, 2:46 PM EST
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-03-11/india-s-stalled-arms-buying-leaves-its-army-outgunned-by-china.html

“However, the report said the overall human rights picture in Somalia has deteriorated because of continued conflict, the availability of small arms, and the absence of the rule of law.”
--VOA News, 11 March 2010
http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/africa/US-Report-Paints-Grim-Picture-of-Human-Rights-in-Africa-87386672.html


The AK Forty Seven's sure
As iron blades from long ago.
And likewise RPGs secure
The job of catapults—to mow

The armor, spiting tongues of smoke.
It's easier to make these arms
Than medicines. A gun will choke
All other trades. A raider farms

The peasants, much like ancient times.
It's not a way of life, instead
Consider it a chain of crimes
With unclear origins. We tread

Upon the brink of middle-age,
With swords enough, but lacking sage
Advice to stay the spreading time afoot:
A darker age. This golden age? Kaput.


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A Game of Chess [Today's News Poem March 11, 2010]

A Game of Chess [Today's News Poem March 11, 2010]

“What was the spark that lit her interest in radical Islam? Born in Michigan, raised in Texas, living in Pennsylvania, LaRose may have had no contact with actual Muslims prior to professing a willingness to die for their cause in electronic messages.
In June 2008, LaRose posted a comment on YouTube saying she was “desperate to do something somehow to help” suffering Muslims. According to the timeline in the US indictment, it appears that only after that was she connected with a loose band of international extremists who suggested she help plot the murder of Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilks.”
--Peter Grier, Christian Science Monitor, March 11, 2010
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Justice/2010/0311/Three-crucial-questions-in-the-Jihad-Jane-case

The age of loyalty's not dead,
Not exorcised: the trait evolved.
We neither live behind, ahead,
Nor inbetween the times—we've solved

Some riddles; nothing war can't fix.
A bit of zero sum uplifts
The winner's soul. War's waged by cliques
And just because allegiance shifts

That doesn't mean that faith's gone dry.
A piety combined with rage
Explodes with zealotry. The spry
Will fight those others fear engage.

In conflict, righteousness is won.
The status quo must face or fail
The challenge it would rather shun.
But martyrs tip perception's scale

Until the entity of state,
Of church, or other cause is lost
For want of worship; sealing fate
As newer faiths take tithing's cost.

Salute a flag, or amity,
Or anime... astrology—
We serve to shape calamity
In service of idolatry.



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Okay, gonna start the news poem

And I'm going to write a bonus poem or two, to make up for the last few days.



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Burroughs Business Machines [Today's News Poem, March 10. 2010]

Burroughs Business Machines [Today's News Poem, March 10. 2010]

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-cal-jobs11-2010mar11,0,3667613.story

http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1633661/20100310/story.jhtml

http://www.ctv.ca/generic/generated/static/business/article1495735.html

With drugs, the wealthy take their pick:
The doctors scrum to fill demand.
With poorer people, hurt and sick,
The government is at command.

A junkie's made inside a lab.
The warriors of silk conspire
Around the polished oaken slabs
To set an addict's thirst on fire.

They bill for what they don't prescribe,
Withholding drugs from those in pain.
And since they've cash enough to bribe
The government, complaint's in vain.

Said Burroughs: opium's control.
A poppy chains an addict's meat.
Its dealer's like police patrols
Inside a mind that knows defeat.

To arms of thugs to help you cope!
To penury if not a jail.
Monopolists who trade in dope
All know their trade will elsewise fail

In games where competition thrives.
A government sets foes to knives,
Denies relief from pain and drives
The wracked to jail. The rest survive—
Obedient to save their lives.



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News poem is late again. Maybe the new norm. Working on it now.

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Arrgh! Sorry for the page load rate.

A bit of script freaked-out and harmed the load rate.





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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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Human Amongst the Androids [Today's News Poem, March 8, 2010]

Human Amongst the Androids [Today's News Poem, March 8, 2010]

“Some witnesses said villagers were caught in fishing nets and animal traps as they tried to escape and were then hacked to death. Mud huts were also set on fire. ”
–, BBC; 21:47 GMT, Monday, 8 March 2010
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8555018.stm

“Google dominates online search, and is apparently eager to extend its reach to the other main screen in most homes.”
--Eliot Van Buskirk, Wired, March 8, 2010
http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/03/google-dish-reportedly-test-android-based-satellite-television/

Psychotic beast, now obsolete
And rare enough (despite its threat)
To wander free amidst the feet
Of working beings; as if a pet—

Amongst the cubicles of gray;
Beneath a lightbulb sun of white;
Above the dirt of black decay:
In oubliettes, the glass bends light—

Psychotic beast, a rarity
Inside the gears of stone and flesh:
Do wild desires give verity
To self, though greed might tear the mesh

Of self-restraint we prize so much?
And as a beast can you admire
A thing you cannot feel, nor touch?
At six you set your home on fire

And threw your father's phone inside
To burn. You said you hoped you'd die
Before you let some bells decide
For you to go; to laugh or cry,

To sit and type, or tuck babes in.
You said you'd rather die than work
Like ants. You said we lived in sin.
Remember? Said we're robot clerks

With ISPs for synapse links?
You said these things, we don't forget
(We are a hive, a world that thinks):
We live—we thrive, you lost that bet.

And now we'll scratch beneath your chin,
And pour a dish of cream for you
Before the work of endless win
Consumes us (it is never through).



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Sorry, I know it's late. I'm working on it now. So tired.

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Late News Poem due to other commitments

Check in again around 6 or 7pm PST. Sorry. Well, more than half of you weren't even here this weekend. Go read the old posts. I'm trying to wrap up the End of Feb edition on top of everything else--can't have me spending less time editing the poems than I spent writing them, now can you? Never mind that; _I_ won't spend less time editing the comps than I spent writing them. They all need something. Even minor changes require major thought and effort. Especially w/ near-finished comps which are the most difficult to edit.

Thanks for your patience re: the matter.

One more thing: welcome to all you new readers. About 1/3 of you are outside the USA, which I find very cool. I'm also appreciative. Thanks.



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Thanks for reading. You've helped accomplish the first goal of Toylit

Your rate of readership has put Toylit on track for 2k unique reads this quarter. I want core readers to know who else is reading Toylit, because I find the stats pretty cool: Since Feb 25 Toyit has had readers from 102 cities around the world. Joao Pessoa, Hyderabad, Islamabad, Sana (Yemen), Port Louis (Mauritius), London, NYC, LA, SF, Portland, etc. Strangely enough, no Chicago yet. 248 unique readers as of this moment, with what looks to be another 40 newsfeed subscribers.

If you approve of Toylit, please help promote it or feign interest in sponsors' wares. Both will ensure quality reading material for the (m)asses reaches critical mass.

Speaking of which, is there a reason you haven't bought the first edition of Toylit? You know it's going out of print, right? The point is to make it an instant collector's item. Should I hit my 10k readers this year, don't you think owning an out of print book is a good bet as far as a collectible is concerned? I thought so, but of course that assumes you believe in me as much as I do.

In short, thanks for reading. If that's all you want to do, I'm happy w/ that. If you feel some greater connection to Toylit and want to help out, consider one of the above means.

Thanks.



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A One Way Trip on Virgin Galactic [Bonus News Poem, March 7, 2010]

A One Way Trip on Virgin Galactic (or Tricks in Post-Apocalyptic Space) [Bonus News Poem, March 7, 2010]

“Iran's Defense Ministry introduced a new domestically-manufactured cruise missile that will significantly improve the deterrence capabilities of the Iranian military forces, the local satellite Press TV reported on Sunday.”
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2010-03/07/c_13200992.htm

“SpaceShipTwo will be unveiled after darkness has fallen over the Mojave Desert to the sound of a space-themed anthem from Britain’s biggest DJs, Above & Beyond. Fittingly titled “Buzz” the track will sample Buzz Aldrin’s original moon landing dialogue. Following the naming by Governors Richardson and Schwarzenegger, the DJs will also perform an exclusive set at the celebration cocktail party which will follow and feature the first ever IceBar in the desert hosted by Absolut and the world famous Swedish IceHotel. All the guests will be protected from the desert cold by designer space jackets supplied by PUMA. Finally, to close off the celebrations, all the guests will have the opportunity to view the stunning night skies using specialist telescopes supplied by Ron Dantowitz of the Clay Observatory whose unique tracking cameras followed SS1 into space during the epic flights of 2004.”
http://www.zimbio.com/Sir+Richard+Branson/articles/6Oa9PZL7ymz/Virgin+Galactic+SpaceShipTwo+1st+Commercial

“Cyrus is also working on an album of her own, which she said will be out later this summer.”
http://www.mtv.com/movies/news/articles/1633359/story.jhtml

The royalties won't pay for air
Much less a berth, a bite to eat—
I've waited long to touch your hair,
To paint the nails on pretty feet

Since puberty. I've thought of you...
I'm sorry does that make you shy?
I'm lonely. Since the earth's been through,
I've cursed this metal in the sky.

Celebrities like you survived
To love your fans (for price, by bit);
Though true on earth, with wealth you thrived,
In space you live by famous slit.

Your wealth on earth is molten slag
In space, your skills? They have no use.
On earth they might have let you drag
Them down, but here you'd best be loose.

Your refuge is our prison now
And servant's master, switching bows;
Now act as if it's Oscar-night
And come to me for Tantric-rites.



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Want a Bonus Poem?

I'm on for the rest of the day. Throw clicks in the hat and I'll keep crankin' 'em out.



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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.



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Working on Today's News Poem and End of Feb Edition

I will start working on Today's News Poem now and will hopefully finish it before the afternoon's contingencies truncate my work.

The End of Feb Edition is lots of work. It's not going to be filled with 'true' final drafts after all. I think by the end of March however, Jan/Feb's News Poems ought to be edited to their true potential. This means additional verses, new images, elimination of problematic metaphors, better wordplay and so forth.

I'm too immersed in the actual activity to see the News Poem aesthetic mutate very deeply; however, I can see some changes. Before, I think I let the news (mostly) guide my verse. The News Poems were more literal. As of late, I'm getting sick of the repetition of the News (which is why it pissed me off enough to write News Poems in the first place) and have been trying to engage it on my terms. I can't tell how that looks to a reader, but hopefully it's doing what I want it to do.

Pretty much, the bulk of the feedback I get from you, my readers, is in the form of web traffic. But you can be harsher. I can take it. The deleted comments you see are merely spammers... I will not censor your response to Toylit unless you spam without my permission (I don't consider regular posters and readers spammers though, so if you'd like to promote a relevant page of your own, feel free to link it up w/ the appropriate link on Toylit... but make sure you also write. I refuse to let this page turn into a place of mute link-trading). Only a few of you are challenging the poems. Even if you like my verse, don't you think I'd get better, faster if you let me know what did/didn't work for you?

Anyhow, too much yapping, not enough composition.



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To Make a Global City [Today's News Poem March 6, 2010]

To Make a Global City [Today's News Poem March 6, 2010]

“"If we are to withdraw from unconventional policies and return to conventional economic policies, we need to choose the time very carefully. This includes the exchange rate policy for the renminbi,"”

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703915204575104743815279822.html?mod=WSJ_Markets_LeadStory

“China had allowed its currency to slowly appreciate against the dollar until late 2008, when world economies sagged under the weight of the United States banking and securities collapse. Most economists say the Beijing government acted to maintain the price advantage of Chinese manufactured goods, a linchpin of the Chinese economy, at a time when exports were drying up.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/07/world/asia/07china.html

First, slather all the world with some concrete,
Then etch the human face of our elite;
Then paint the surface red and white and blue.
The bluebloods spill that commie ink—a hue
That contrasts with the white of so-called 'good,'
We crown with lies: enriching thieves and hoods.
This planet called America will own
The sun—such leverage will finance loans

To colonize the nearby space. The stars
Will serve as power-plants to animate
A polis Plato might have loved. The bars?
Are promissory notes and credit rates.

A human being will work as long as he's inspired;
Postpone the joy—most everything that she desired
To gain it back with savings after he's been hired,
Not knowing that before she wins that she'll be fired.

We sell the sale then tell the tale
Of how we won our megatons,
While workers solder, hammer nails:
We've fixed the game and have them spun.



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No Emotion [Today's News Poem, March 5, 2010]

No Emotion [Today's News Poem, March 5, 2010]

““They said he walked up very cool, like there was no distress,” Chief Keevill said Thursday night, quoting the officers. “He had no real emotion in his face.””
--Thom Shanker and Ian Urbina, New York Times, March 5, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/06/us/06gunman.html?hp

“The men showed no emotion in court today as they were convicted of conspiracy to murder and of belonging to a terrorist group.”
--Lauren Frayer, AOL News, March 4, 2010
http://www.aolnews.com/world/article/germany-sentences-4-men-in-al-qaida-linked-plot-against-us-targets/19382760

“John Albert Gardner III stood in court in shackles with his eyes cast downward, showing no emotion, as an attorney waived arraignment and a reading of the complaint and entered pleas of not guilty in the potential death penalty case.”
--Elliot Spagat, The Associated Press, March 3, 2010
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hZxpBuPrX2vIYnBuZtCVLuNvBN6gD9E7FQCG1

Emotion's not a partial state
Of consciousness. Propensity's
Informed by itch. A scratch will sate
One spot, but not immensities

Of rash. Curtailer of most joy,
It smothers other body pleas;
The itch and scrape's another ploy
Of flesh to trick the self to ease.

The rapist's cock will torture him.
A theist's God will whisper 'smite'
Responding to their worship-hymn.
To paranoids, it's ever night;

In every shadow lurks a slight.
They seek to see the darkness right:
To spare their eyes the strain, they light
The world ablaze

And note the comforting of might.
They flee their pain and scorn delight.



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End of Feb Edition ETA and Other Updates

After the workday today, I'll focus entirely on the End of Feb edition of Toylit. I will exterminate those galling punctuation errors and seize upon poetic opportunities I squandered in my haste to compose. Once I've done that, I will pull older editions of Toylit from distribution and publish the End of Feb edition.

Follow Toylit on Twitter. I'm there as 'toylitpaper'. Make sure you look for the gourmet dog: he's our icon of quality and retweet the News Poems you like.

Now to start Today's News Poem.



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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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Okay, it's late as hell. I haven't even started the bonus poem

I plead the fifth.



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You probably want a bonus news poem

Give me a little time. Say, until 6pm PST. I have things to do before I can even start a bonus news poem.



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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.



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Fanfare for the Common Crook, [Both Movements: March 3, 2010]

Fanfare for the Common Crook [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

I) A Fine Distinction
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?

II) Why the River Lethe
A puff of weed destroys the pain
Of traumas pent within the brain.
A snort of coke for richer folk
Will lace a harshness in their jokes.
With both, a drug is just the means
By which they glimpse at better scenes.
We own whatever we obtain.
Since loss is pain, we must sustain
Our gains—though loss is life's great crux,
We stave its rush with lots of bucks.

We yearn and so we die in bits
And bored to death between the scares
We drink whatever gives us fits:
As life denies us, takes our wares

In increments too small to note—
A tiny death by desk: a rote
And wearing task of paper null.
This prison has no outer hull:
Its bars are codicils of ink,
And lawyers form its monied links.
And when another fucker's crashed
And tossed in bins as if he's trashed
He'll seek that perfect cup of joe
He has an image he must show

The world: that he loves only pleasure—
Or fears life's pain: they've equal measure.



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