Rigged, indeed, Frederick, but repeatable too. though not perhaps in
these venues...
Back to the future?
Doug
On 22-May-07, at 6:54 PM, Frederick Pollack wrote:
> You Know You Want It
>
>
> An airship picked me up a block from home.
> I had stepped out in search of joy.
> I’d say I was abducted, but I wasn’t:
> two blondes in bikinis
> leered down and invited me
> to climb the rope ladder.
> (I knew their flattery was insincere,
> but any straight guy would have climbed.)
> On the deck of the gondola, a gorilla,
> no scarier than need be,
> hooked me up to a treadmill;
> the exercise, he growled, would do me good.
> Other intellectuals
> trudged beside me, likewise
> endlessly checking their heart-rate and calorie output;
> our efforts turned the propeller.
> I knew they were intellectuals
> because of the remarks that were
> our rations: “They don’t whip us.
> How insulting.” “The system makes us drive
> ourselves.” “What do you mean by ‘us’?”
> “The symbolism is outrageous!”
> Meanwhile we watched
> passengers and crew
> doff skimpy clothing, screw,
> feed grapes to each other, drink,
> fight, snort, shoot up, collapse,
> and vomit over the rail –
> no doubt upon the uncomplaining poor
> in the shadow of the gasbag.
> We were off limits, for good or ill,
> which made us feel secure and lonely.
> (“But are they enjoying it?” “Are we?”
> “’One must imagine Sisyphus happy.’”) –
> When I was used up, I was let go,
> having lost little weight;
> we had covered perhaps a block.
> The same girls waved ironically,
> or perhaps their hands were dangling languidly.
> The day lost, I went home
> to find within myself
> some principle of joy,
> that omnipresent, rigged, compulsory lottery.
>
Douglas Barbour
11655 - 72 Avenue NW
Edmonton Ab T6G 0B9
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http://www.ualberta.ca/~dbarbour/
Latest book: Continuations (with Sheila E Murphy)
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Peace isn't even as good a sales item
as poetry.
W. H. Ferry
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