ani difranco- self evident
09/25/2003 11:58 p.m.
us people are just poems
we're 90% metaphor
with a leanness of meaning
approaching hyper-distillation
and once upon a time
we were moonshine
rushing down the throat of a giraffe
yes, rushing down the long hallway
despite what the p.a. announcement says
yes, rushing down the long stairs
with the whiskey of eternity
fermented and distilled
to eighteen minutes
burning down our throats
down the hall
down the stairs
in a building so tall
that it will always be there
yes, it's part of a pair
there on the bow of noah's ark
the most prestigious couple
just kickin back parked
against a perfectly blue sky
on a morning beatific
in its indian summer breeze
on the day that america
fell to its knees
after strutting around for a century
without saying thank you
or please

and the shock was subsonic
and the smoke was deafening
between the setup and the punch line
cuz we were all on time for work that day
we all boarded that plane for to fly
and then while the fires were raging
we all climbed up on the windowsill
and then we all held hands
and jumped into the sky
and every borough looked up when it heard the first blast
and then every dumb action movie was summarily surpassed
and the exodus uptown by foot and motorcar
looked more like war than anything i've seen so far
so far
so far

so fierce and ingenious
a poetic specter so far gone
that every jackass newscaster was struck
dumb and stumbling
over 'oh my god' and 'this is unbelievable' and on and on
and i'll tell you what, while we're at it
you can keep the pentagon
keep the propaganda
keep each and every tv
that's been trying to convince me
to participate
in some prep school punk's plan to perpetuate retribution
perpetuate retribution
even as the blue toxic smoke of our lesson in retribution
is still hanging in the air
and there's ash on our shoes
and there's ash in our hair
and there's a fine silt on every mantle
from hell's kitchen to brooklyn
and the streets are full of stories
sudden twists and near misses
and soon every open bar is crammed to the rafters
with tales of narrowly averted disasters
and the whiskey is flowin
like never before
as all over the country
folks just shake their heads
and pour

so here's a toast to all the folks who live in palestine
afghanistan
iraq
el salvador
here's a toast to the folks living on the pine ridge reservation
under the stone cold gaze of mt. rushmore
here's a toast to all those nurses and doctors
who daily provide women with a choice
who stand down a threat the size of oklahoma city
just to listen to a young woman's voice
here's a toast to all the folks on death row right now
awaiting the executioner's guillotine
who are shackled there with dread
and can only escape into their heads
to find peace in the form of a dream

cuz take away our playstations
and we are a third world nation
under the thumb of some blue blood royal son
who stole the oval office and that phony election
i mean
it don't take a weatherman
to look around and see the weather
jeb said he'd deliver florida, folks
and boy did he ever
and we hold these truths to be self evident:
#1 george w. bush is not president
#2 america is not a true democracy
#3 the media is not fooling me
cuz i am a poem heeding hyper-distillation
i've got no room for a lie so verbose
i'm looking out over my whole human family
and i'm raising my glass in a toast
here's to our last drink of fossil fuels
let us vow to get off of this sauce
shoo away the swarms of commuter planes
and find that train ticket we lost
cuz once upon a time the line followed the river
and peeked into all the backyards
and the laundry was waving
the graffiti was teasing us
from brick walls and bridges
we were rolling over ridges
through valleys
under stars
i dream of touring like duke ellington
in my own railroad car
i dream of waiting on the tall blonde wooden benches
in a grand station aglow with grace
and then standing out on the platform
and feeling the air on my face
give back the night its distant whistle
give the darkness back its soul
give the big oil companies the finger finally
and relearn how to rock-n-roll

yes, the lessons are all around us
and a change is waiting there
so it's time to pick through the rubble, clean the streets
and clear the air
get our government to pull its big dick out of the sand
of someone else's desert
put it back in its pants
and quit the hypocritical chants of
freedom forever
cuz when one lone phone rang
in two thousand and one
at ten after nine
on nine one one
which is the number we all called
when that lone phone rang right off the wall
right off our desk and down the long hall
down the long stairs
in a building so tall
that the whole world turned
just to watch it fall

and while we're at it
remember the first time around?
the bomb?
the ryder truck?
the parking garage?
the princess that didn't even feel the pea?
remember joking around in our apartment on avenue D?
can you imagine how many paper coffee cups
would have to change their design
following a fantastical reversal of the new york skyline?!
it was a joke, of course
it was a joke
at the time
and that was just a few years ago
so let the record show
that the FBI was all over that case
that the plot was obvious and in everybody's face
and scoping that scene
religiously
the CIA
or is it KGB?
committing countless crimes against humanity
with this kind of eventuality
as its excuse
for abuse after expensive abuse
and it didn't have a clue

look, another window to see through
way up here
on the 104th floor
look
another key
another door
10% literal
90% metaphor
3000 some poems disguised as people
on an almost too perfect day
should be more than pawns
in some asshole's passion play
so now it's your job
and it's my job
to make it that way
to make sure they didn't die in vain
sshhhhhh....
baby listen
hear the train?
I am currently Amazed
I am listening to ani difranco- self evident

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i heart aiko scott to the heartingest degree.
09/24/2003 10:50 p.m.
dude, so. check this out. yesterday or so, i was futzin around lj, and aiko left me a comment about how she was gonna comment on some of my poems taday.
i thought maybe i was in for 5 or 6 new comments, tops.
i logged on this morning, i had 913 comments. i logged on right now,

and i have 930 comments. of those 17 new comments, i believe that 15 of those were from dear aiko. wow... i feel speschialler than a barrelfull of monkeys on acid.

:)

thanks you...thanks you sooo mooch. :) i heart it when i see that skybluecomicsans... it just brightens up my day. :)

i'm gonna go read some poetry now.

peace:a
I am currently Loved
I am listening to the postal service- sleeping in

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ladies and gentlemen, that's 900.
09/20/2003 04:15 p.m.
bwahahaha. indeed, today i have 900 comments. the 900th came from my lovely friend caitlin, on my poem "personal hiroshima's." yay!

now, it's my goal to hit 1000 for haloween. that's been my goal for a while... but still. i have... 41 days to get 100 comments.

that means i need about 2-3 comments a day for that span. i can do it. :)

wheeee. the end.
I am currently Dorky
I am listening to everclear- one hit wonder

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thursday- war all the time
09/19/2003 01:09 a.m.
i've fallen in love with this song.

Standing on the edge of the palisades cliffs, In the shadow of the skyline very far away , A lightning rod that couldn’t pull the storm from me. I was 5 years old, my best friends older brother died- He fell from these cliffs. The river washed him away, the current pulled him downstream In our eyes, floating in the headlights, so we parked these cars- Parent’s garage, Listen to the lullaby Of Carbon Monoxide.

War all of the time, In the shadow of the New York skyline We grew up too fast, falling apart Like the ashes of American flags. The sun doesn’t rise- We replaced it with an h-bomb explosion, A painted jail cell of blood in the sky, like Three Mile Island. Nightmares on TV, they used to sing us to sleep- They burn on and on like an oil field, Or a memory of what it felt like To burn on and on- and not just fade away... All those nights in the basement, the kids are still screaming, On and on and on and on

War all of the time In the shadow of the New York skyline, We grew up too fast falling apart Like the ashes of American flags. And we’re blowing in the wind, We don’t know where to land- So we kiss like little kids. We used to be very tall buildings, We’ve been falling for so long. Now, your eyes follow the sign on the edge of town- They offer a welcome when you are leaving.

War all of the time In the shadow of the New York skyline, We grew up too fast falling apart Like the ashes of American flags. The pieces fall it’s like a last day parade, And the fires in our streets start to rage. so wave to the people that long to wave back- from the fabric of a flag that sang "love all of the time"

War all the time War all the time
All of the time
I am currently Apathetic
I am listening to thursday- this song brought to you by a falling bomb

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youre the dream that hasnt ended, and im still anxious for rest.
09/17/2003 12:42 p.m.
so, every time i write an entry like this, the poem gets knocked off the top 10 lists... but wow.
"isolation, serenity..." is getting crazy reads and mad comments. like, no joke. it's been up a week and a half, and it's already gotten 18 comments and 140-some reads. it's 6th on my most read list. and that's with 2 potd's thrown in;
it's also the longest i've ever been on the top 10 lists-= eekish. hey, it's all gravy...

in other news.

FINALLY got the new palahniuk book, Diary. tis pretty good so far.

peace.

p.s. the title of the entry, it's from the juliana theory's "closest thing".
I am currently Awestruck
I am listening to ani difranco- unworthy

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yay, the nine eleven entry.
09/11/2003 10:37 p.m.
looks like we made it 2 more years without a terrorist attack..
i wonder if the white house has one of those signs you see on construction sites:

730 days without a terrorist attack

those kindsa things. i heard so many people say where they were when it happened, what they were doing... of course they were doing the american thing: sitting around watching tv the entire day. hardly seems like a damn thing has changed!
i'm sorry if i come across bitchy; i just figure that our government let us down one time too many; and we use today as a national time to rally behind ourselves and reminisce. it brought people together, true... but we over-payed.

more later.

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murfle...
09/11/2003 12:47 p.m.
minus five.

ah well. my new haircut= hot.
but, i wasnt taking very good picturas last night, so you cant even tell from those. meh, damnage.

whee. the end.

in other news, if i go to school today, the terrorists will have won.

i'll not get started on 9.11.
I am currently Apathetic
I am listening to grandaddy- now its on

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an ode to no one
09/08/2003 09:20 p.m.
god, i love the lyric in my profile. it's from the pumpkins song fuck you (an ode to no one)... it's so abstract, but so real and cool.
anyways. i reorganized my library yesterday. the main page was rather cluttered; so i dumped a bunch of damn good poems into my '0lympus' folder. now i really do have the best of the best sitting in my main library, cept for the new stuff.

huzzah. school blows. anyone in the world who has the option, stay the hell away from Advanced Placement US History. or IB US history. whatever your school calls it's absurdly hard history class, stay the fuck away from it.

anyways. today, i was dead. i think i fell asleep during art of film (best class EVER.)... meh.

well, i'ma kick it outta here.
I am currently Tired
I am listening to dashboard confessional- morning calls

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it certainly took me long enough...
09/04/2003 01:25 a.m.
remember when i was churning out about 50 poems a month? heh. well, i got about that over the entire summer- but i finally made it to 600 tonight. woohoo, that rules.

the 600th is "(not) another generic cola."- it's a little bit of a change of pace for me.

well, that's it for me!

au revoir!
I am currently Bored
I am listening to phantom planet- lonely day

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hmm... delicious.
09/01/2003 06:09 p.m.

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