songanddancegirl

LEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

A  MAN  NEEDS  A    MAID

At least 4 maids went mad in our front hall

The last one  Lucy  shouted obscenities  &

kicked the dog    We were consoled by the

fact that she didn’t pull a  Dexter  and chop

up little brother  He grew up with a penchant

for horror   His favourite film  The Shining

The first 3 were named Mary   1 stole pictures

of our mother visiting the Continent   They were

found later with captions: Paris was fantastique!

Sounds like the onset of madness  to me

In my mind’s eye   I see the 1^st Mary  all dressed

in blue  with stigmata on her cheeks   Her son in

prison for crimes he never committed   Not prodigal

Never returned   Mary now straight-jacketed marching

toward a cruiser    Each day she wept into our baths

salt mixing with dove mixing with neurosis

The one named Brenda (our 1^st not-Mary)  fell hard

for my 16 yr. old brother   Bestowing the kinds of

kisses our mother would never have dreamed   She

later ran off with our neighbor Rubin   Stepmother to

Lilibeth & Hilda   now a suburban Queen

We lived on a deep & fertile ravine  where wild animals

& satyrs cavorted   While out front Cadillacs of various

colours gave off a gold-toothed gleam   When we drove

out to farm-country our father lowed convincingly   & all

the cows for miles around chased us to our mother’s screams

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Winter  2014

CYBER-HEAVEN

IMAGINE  THERE’S  NO    CYBER-HEAVEN

Verno Vinge   science fiction aficionado said:

By 2040 we will merge with our computers

cast off our bodies   realize immortality

the Singularity will be upon us

This idea is now embraced as fact  but will we

still be Human?  Have we ever been?  Or have

we remained that mutation slouching out of Africa

millennia ago?

Will there still be:  war  serial killers  gangs?

(who slash hundreds in the subways of China)

Wasn’t religion supposed to be the opiate of

the masses?  Stone tablets the first glimmering

of the human conscience?

Remember  the Savage  in Brave New World?

Last remaining old world Human   wound up on a

rope  in the shower   Ditto for David Foster Wallace

brilliant young man of American letters  on his front porch

There is no evidence to suggest that our constant interface

with technology is making us happier   braver    Studies show

that we trust techno-gadgets more than our instincts   Take the

couple who followed their GPS  into the wilderness  & died

though surrounded by paved roads

Long passive from relying on the machine  human creativity

disappears   The God in the machine pricks up his ears   & returns

to the Mothership    finally weary of our anxiety  & depression

Abandoned here some of us loot  looted art   & begin a movement

to rehabilitate Heaven

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Winter  2014