----- Original Message -----
From: "Halvard Johnson" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, February 16, 2008 12:59 PM
Subject: 4 Subprime-Mortgage Sonnets
>4 Subprime-Mortgage Sonnets
>
>
> i.
>
> talent for vanishing
> dance suites
>
> repossessed pulque
> bars, luxury-class
>
> rigors of cold
> climate
>
> who's that on tenor?
>
>
>
> ii.
>
> backroom brawls
> back in the news
>
> raunchy endeavors
> under review
>
> local calls at long-
> distance rates
>
> empty before filling
>
>
>
> iii.
>
> away all boats
> ask me about
>
> red houses all
> in a row
>
> tonight's rock
> concerto
>
> cancelled
>
>
>
> iv.
>
> glossy enlargements
> no extra cost
>
> some ice cubes
> on a blanket
>
> your house or
> mine?
>
> Hungry, a country?
>
>
>
>
> Hal
>
I like these a lot. Especially the way urgent questions - they could almost
be slogans - are slipped in beneath sardonic surface meanings. "your house
or / mine" - yes, it could be your house, or mine, that becomes unsellable,
for which the payments suddenly explode, that we lose, etc. So many "dance
suites" - the stakeholder society, irrational exuberance, realtors' and
politicians promises - have a "talent for vanishing." I feel however that
the last line is too overtly tendentious. You don't need to do that. "your
house or / mine?" - preceded by that wet blanket or some new indictment -
would be a great ending.
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