this age of anxiety
this tumult
this shifting sand

abroad: revolutns
will thr new mastrs
be friend r foe

frm athens to rome 
marseille to manchestr
granada to galway
overspent
bills come due
but in th jar 
iou iou iou
littl lies 
we'll get to this latr

kited checks
have come full circle
pensions r
mere ponzi
empty promises
as canes outnumber prams

the young afraid
the old afraid
of and for th future
faith in the prince
wavers

so here we ar
no one
left to lie to

but sam johnson saw
that whn a man knows 
he'll be hangd in a week
it concentrats his mind 
wonderflly

a warm spring satrday 
new york
march 25
1911


cecilia walker and
jennie franco, just 16
rushed up to th 11th flor
nearly late for thr job

as dressmakrs for th
triangle shirtwaist factry
they trudgd thru th day
waitng for a nite out 
just th girls

almos quittng time 
someone shouted fire
rags frm th cutting tables 

nowhere down
exits locked cuz
they thot we were 
stealing things

girls stood on windowsils 
tearing their hair in handfuls
then they jumped

into
piles of dead

cecilia looked around 
callng to jen 
but she had alredy gone 

decembr 2008

after
lying in a coma
fr 28 yrs
sunny von bülow
died at a nrsing home
in new yrk

her 2nd husbnd claus
found gilty th 1st trial
of tryng to kill her with insulin

acquitd in retrial

seren n still
like sleepng beuty
manicurd nails
blond hair set 2wice a wk
nuns n nurses
hr son n dautr
and later the estrangd one
in a 3 decade vigl

there wer no eulogies
only hymns
grandkids she nevr met
red from the bible

th incense
reminded hr
of her 1st weddng
when hope was yet
expansiv

lizbeth's jurnal
oregn 1847

novembr 18
left indiana in aprl
now my husbnd jon
is sick
it rains and snows
i carry my babe
mud and water almos to my knees
so cold and numb
i could not tell
i had any feet at all
the wagon crawls ahed

novbr 30
rain this mornng
rain all day
impossibl to cook or
keep warm or dry
froze my feet so that
i cant wear shoes
hav to go round in the
cold water barefoot

decembr 8
rain all day
he coughs nd sleeps

decmbr 21
rain all day
jon has a fevr
cant go any furthr
what littl mony we had
i spent on a room
a small leaky concern
wit 2 famlies already in it
cant writ any more

janury 15
jon is stil alive
but very sick.
there is no medicine here
or mony to buy it

febury 1
rain all day
this day my dear husband
my last remaining friend
died

febry 2
today buried my earthly companion
i know what widows know
how comfortless
left in a strange land
no money or frends
nd the care of of a child
cloudy

feb 10
i have not told
half tht we suffered
not adequat to the task
nd my educatn limted

jun 16
the baby walkd today

21 janry 1952
millboro, sout dkota
jus north of th nebraska line

the midle of nowhre

it was a nice mornng so
at noon clarence longcor
wnt to town for suplies

the forcast sed a storm
wuld strike but
he dint expect it
to be there til evning

sudenly the air got vry still
he had a hunch 2 or 3 times
to turn back
and lookd fr a place to turn
around

thn the blizard struck
snowng heavily
no let up all afternon
car stuk in a drft
he culdnt see frther than
th ornamnt on the car hood

mor snow
4:30 he left th car
to try for the davis farm home
a quartr mile ahead
culd only see the ground befor him
barely made out the hi-line posts
missd the turn to th yrd twice

aftr 15 minuts and 3 tries
made it only as far as the granary
th house just 50 yrds furthr
but which way?

afraid he wuld freez so
no sleep -that enemy
evry 20 minuts would
stamp his feet 200 tims
nd beat his hands together
200 tims
th sno blew an blew

he prayd for his wife home alon
smokd cigarets
an talkd to th ducks

8 hrs then mornin
mad it to th house
they gave him warm cloths
a warm breakfst and coffe
which tastd good

his hands were swolln
for days
from beatng them togethr

long ago
whn i was a god
a yung celtic man
mistook me fr 
aerten 
god of ovrcoming enemis
he askd to defeat
his neighbr
in a fistfigt

imagin his surpris
the nxt day
when he lernt i was
actualy th god of
laftr n kisses n 
come hither looks

evry yr for 5 decades
wm randolf herst
spent a millin bucks or mor
buyng antiquitis 
a mad lifetim 
of aquisishun

at th time 
that was a quartr 
of all th
art objex sold
in the whol wrld

thats alot

like citzn kan
he never saw thousands of thm
antiqes stored in 
unopend crates

i myslf sat unnoticd
in a small cornr
for almos 3 yrs
until a visitng child
askd if sh culd tak me hom

to mov a 12fth ecntury 
cloister from segovia 
bot unseen
herst bilt 21 miles 
of railrod 
10,700 crats of ston

but he ran out of mony
and thy sat 
in a brooklin warehous 
fr 26 yrs
now ther in miami i thnk

i nevr saw the movi tho
i hrd about th endng
innocens lost 
maks men into bastrds
or somthng

but rly i thnk
its jes th way 
of al flesh

yestrday
a squirrl put a walnut at my feet
an offring to a formr god

long ago
when i was a god
the local peopl
brot me tributs
meat n flowrs
the occasnl spice

its ben a long time
since gifts wer given

i shud admit tho
the squrrl actully put the
offring on my hed
and it rolld off
landng at my feet

u tak what u cn get

makiaveli
restd his boots on my head
leand bak in his chair
fingrs pointd to his chin

he told cesar borga
to betray 
th duches of sforza 

to pretend a truce
then strip hr 
put hr in a iron cage 
n rape hr in front of hr troops

talk virtu he sed
but be ruthlss

trubl wth betrayl,
maki sed is that 
u can only play that card once


but borga had
alredy left
bfor hearing that
proviso

1844
harriet mccormick 
delited in her new
oberlin iron stove

one day 
hr dres cot fire
she ran into the yard
ablaze

found 3 days latr
when hiram returnd 
from killarney

im afraid 
i wasnt much use
cept as a graveston

i nevr playd fotbal

but i was the mascot for
a hurlng team 
frm Kilkenny in 1884
until ther midfieldr
tript ovr me
and brok his ankl

i was tossd into the 
river nore

wensday morning 1932

soo falls
the young man an his yong bride
and a tiny grl
not evn one yrs old

all togethr in their basemnt home
hard times

he startd buildng it
2 yrs befor but
th mony ran out

at least he had a job tho

i guarded th vegtbls
from crows n bums
but being made of stone
i wasnt to good at it

not untl
more thn a hundrd yrs 
after rome crucifid
its last por sol

aftr the last eywitnes
was gon
the agony n screams
humiliatn n taunts
avertd eyes
th horror
finaly forgotn

not untl thn
did the christns make
picturs of it

from my cornr in th monastry 
st jon of zagba 
th yr 586
i watchd rabbula 
monk and scribe
finish th illumntd gospl

he wd giv me a playfl pat
on th hed
when he walkd by
my fur soon staind
by th drk brown ink
on his aged hands

once
abot fifty yrs ago
i was a flea markt find
two bits was all

they paintd me white
my collr blak
and set me on th stoop
a sentinel

every day the boy
he was 8
came home frm school
and wrot a new spellng word
on my white white fur
with a big fat pncil

recess
barber
willow

soon i was gray wit pncil
stil he wrot

feather
supper
pretend

that june they movd away
but dint take me

lonely
island
forgive

in egypt long ago
they did not know of cheese

the pharohs dughter brot me
evrywehre
dressd me in finery
n did not make me waer a hat

at th banks of a rivr
she ate grapes n sycamore figs
not chees

i learnt ther r few things
as beatifl as
girls in bulrushes
in the late atumn sun

i was set atop a cokroach once
he beggd for help and thn
expird

tho i am made of stone
my heart is not
his small voice meltd away
i always felt bad bout the lil guy
i rly culdnt budge

it wasnt persnl i sware

i do wondr sometims
if he wasnt a scarab beetl
tho he wasnt rollng a ball of dung
so its hrd to tell fr sure

khephera
the scarab god
used to push the dung ball sun
across the egyptn sky

i hope it wasnt him i sat on
tho no one saw him after that
so u just never know

in olden times
when i was a god
worshiprs paid me annual tribute
wheat n goats n such

the flowrs wer pretty

one day
a vainglorios young man 
toppled me ovr
and sed he was a god
to be paid tributs

just 2.5 percnt is all
but then it was 5 and ten 
and thn he took the mony first 
and doled out wot was 
leftover
to his subjects

being made of cncrete
i watched
soon
he was topled
his grave as forgottn as his name

but this lesson is nevr learnt
each new man thnks he knows 
how to get ths tribut thing 
done right

if i still had my powrs
i wuld bestow riches on u

like lovng smiles 
in a warm summr rain
that noone expctd

that was one of my favrit gifts
tho few seemd to want it
not as much as money r gold

most prayrs lack imaginatn
they all wantd cash

but lowr-case g gods have
limitd powrs
i was mostly good at 
laftr n kisses n 
come hither looks

mayb thats why im now 
a gardn gnome

shoulda guv out 
wads of 10s n 20s
then id still be in th game

o well
live n lrn

the bad thng about wintr storms 
is whn i have to wear 
a ridculos 18 inch sno hat

when i was a god
i nevr wore hats

now peopl think its cute
and make me waer hats alla time
o the shame

once the littl grl who lives here
tied a prple scarf arond m neck
an i felt a lil like a god again

it was quite feching

i rlly miss the sacrifical offerngs tho

its nice t be needed

in oldn days i was god
not *the god but *a god

i fell outta favor whn
jeebus hisself came and 
made concrete gods look 
foolish

not as foolish as 
gods made f twigs, but
foolish

anyway right now im a 
garden statu
covred in 18 iches of snow

but its honest wrk