The unknowing beast drips into the white I
that floats in the morning-glory blue of you;
he is an orange instant, a fleeting part,
quickly lost in the variegated whole,
the minute, vast flows of shades and tints of love,
the inhaling, pause, the exhaling, of breaths.
Synecdoches: iii The Orchid
The beast dreams of his hour of steel, but it’s you,
the orchid, who, with your indigo edge, parts
his tweeting orange moment. The silent whole
curves through your tender petals into the love
cutting deep as a newborn’s first crying breath
slicing time into glints of the flying I.
Synecdoches: i The Mouse
The moment the beast drops off, a fourfold breath
—in, pause, out, pause—composes the fleeting I
before he awakes and tweets again to you;
stuck in himself, he misses how the air parts
to allow a mouse to flash into the whole,
wafting a change in climate, a whiff of love
Preventing Autocracy
Stopping Trump’s ascent to autocracy will only be successful to the extent that opponents can displace him as the primary narrator, truth-teller, and savior of America. The opposition needs to unify around a movement with a leader or group of leaders who can capture Americans’ imagination and trust and can inspire their democratic spirit. The opposition must be skilled at using media to keep people’s attention focused on this movement and these leaders. We must do this work now so that, if, as is likely, a national emergency occurs, people will turn to this movement and follow these leaders, rather than Mr. Trump.
new year’s day 2017
in the new year’s cold
the sunlight angles towards warmth
i lean into you
Seize the Narrative Ground
The arguments over why Hillary Clinton lost the election distract us from the more crucial question, how did Donald Trump win? Trump won the election by constructing and wholly dominating three interlocking narrative worlds. Mitigating the threat Trump poses requires seizing the narrative ground he currently occupies.
dust
we are all
are puffs of
dust to dust
