once i was digging
digging a hole and this popped out
when i put no thought into it and it
was so awful like the sludge with
the maggots and the earthworms
so accidental but it's all you get
and i suppose
all you can expect

Poetry is always local and difficult.

DaDa
da da
da DA dadadadada
ad R
wz I
da P
zw RI PPPPPPPPPPPPPPpppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppp

DADADADADADADADADADADADADA

There is nothing new under the sun

Where I Live

A wading pool for unborn kings,
Fruit of the Loom,
Swivel Chair Throne in
This Hurricane Room.
Drafty fourth floor.
Manifest destiny, western frontier of
The city of Tribal Love
Governing from the eastern shore,
A window office in a Cubicle Nation.
From the space station on the roof,
I poke out my head, I swallow stars.
Count them, for further proof:
Eclipsed by the city's midnight Milkyway
Few remain.
My face consumes the mirror:
I am enormous in my own skin.

Republocrats and the Democans...

The Evangelical Block: America’s Religious, Right?
Steven Waye

“One nation under God”. “In God We Trust.” Creeds such as these have remained woven into the fabric of American culture since its inception as a nation, serving as a reminder that, despite the constitutional commitment to an ostensible separation of church and state, a fundamental religiosity was instrumental in shaping of the values of the fledgling nation. Reciprocally, these phrases continue to reflect the enduring status of America as a very spiritual nation (91% of Americans believe in God, according to a 2007 Newsweek poll). We encounter them every day, muttered reflexively in classrooms across America, bannered across the bottom of our national currency; but the straightforward phrasing of these axioms belies their ambiguity, as well as the plurality of American religious belief. In what sort of God do we trust? We are one nation under God, perhaps, but do our spiritual convictions make us more or less indivisible? Such is the challenge of a politician attempting to appeal to the sacred heart of contemporary America.

George Bush’s narrow victories in 2000 and 2004 were attributed largely to his ability to energize and mobilize the nebulous “religious right”, a term injected into the vernacular by the news media to describe a group of people that are loosely bound by a zeal for a specific brand of evangelical Christianity, social conservatism, gun racks, and PTA meetings. Perhaps because of the dominant personalities (Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, Billy Graham) that have risen from this camp in recent decades, this faction of American Christianity is assumed to be representative of the general American Christian populous. It is assumed that by appealing to this demographic, overwhelmingly the domain of the Republican Party in recent years, one has captured the soul of the spiritual center of a spiritual nation.

But according to a 2005 study* only 7% of Americans define themselves as “evangelicals”, meaning that, among other stringent criteria, they define themselves as having a “close personal relationship with Jesus Christ”, maintain that faith is a vital part of their everyday life, and that it is their mission to share this faith with others. The numbers simply don’t jive with the sort of sway that this block has over the minds of politicians and pundits. While the evangelicals are not the largest Christian denomination, they are almost certainly the loudest. Perhaps the perceived effect of the Bible-thumping camp on the last two elections has less to do with magnitude than with megaphones.

The two candidates have taken tellingly different tacks in their pursuit of the elusive “God vote”. As of late, McCain has taken the Bush approach, courting the evangelicals by making his no nonsense anti-abortion stance a more salient issue than it has been at any other point in his political career, becoming more vocal about his faith, and recruiting an obscure first term governor from Alaska who fits the Christian conservative mold to a cross-bow shaped T. McCain’s Christianity is of the old guard, a public faith that focuses on honor, duty, and community. At the Saddleback forum, hosted by Pastor Rick Warren, he identified America’s greatest moral failing as an essential selfishness. “Our faith,” he said, “encompasses not just America but the whole world.”

Obama speaks to a younger generation of believers, with a more nuanced, introspective, and, not surprisingly, trendier outlook on Christian faith in a postmodern world. Obama has always been more forthright than McCain in discussions about his faith, but far from actively courting the evangelical vote many of his proposed policies are in direct opposition to fundamentalist values. Statements like the one he made during the primaries about small town America, a bastion of religious conservatism, being comprised of people who “cling to guns and faith” do not make him sound like a man who is overly concerned about kissing the elephant-sized ass of the so-called religious right. Instead, Obama and his running mate, Joe Biden, espouse a more secularized faith that appeals to Christian concerns for equality and social justice. Unlike Kerry in 2004, who bumblingly tried to avoid the faith issue altogether, Obama is appealing directly to a new generation of Christians who seem more concerned about the practical application of their faith than the finer points of theological doctrine.

Faith and politics have always been inseparable in this country, and above all we want a man (or woman) in the White house who reflects our most deeply held convictions in word and deed. This election will be in many ways a barometer of America’s spiritual priorities and will aid in putting a face to the God in which we, as Americans, actually trust.
_____________________________________
*Born again Christians" were defined in these surveys as people who said they have made "a personal commitment to Jesus Christ that is still important in their life today" and who also indicated they believe that when they die they will go to Heaven because they had confessed their sins and had accepted Jesus Christ as their savior. Respondents were not asked to describe themselves as "born again." Being classified as "born again" is not dependent upon church or denominational affiliation or involvement.

“Evangelicals" are a subset of born again Christians in Barna surveys. In addition to meeting the born again criteria, evangelicals also meet seven other conditions. Those include saying their faith is very important in their life today; contending that they have a personal responsibility to share their religious beliefs about Christ with non-Christians; stating that Satan exists; maintaining that eternal salvation is possible only through grace, not works; asserting that Jesus Christ lived a sinless life on earth; saying that the Bible is totally accurate in all it teaches; and describing God as the all-knowing, all-powerful, perfect deity who created the universe and still rules it today. Further, respondents were not asked to describe themselves as "evangelical." Being classified as "evangelical" is not dependent upon any church or denominational affiliation or involvement.

“Soooofragette Ceeeeety!”

Over the speakers I hear an overly emotional guitarist crooning something strangely familiar, considering the flamenco strumming pattern and the lyrics, all in Spanish. I laugh as I realize this guy’s covering the entirety of Ziggy Stardust. Alien rockstar, indeed. I am simply amused by this Hispanic man’s pilfering of Bowie, until I notice the vigilante tapping of my toes and realize that in some strange way this resonates with me more than the original. I ask the baristo (it’s a dude) who this is and he says “Sue George”. I’m sure I’m butchering the actual spelling, but the too appropriate image of a boy named Sue recording the hits of a cross-dressing glam rocker is just too gratifying to have me bother looking it up. I can just envision little ten year old Sue prancing around in front of the mirror with his mom’s lipstick and high heels on, belting out “Ch-ch-ch-ch-changeeees!” in a thick latino accent. Not that I ever did that. I mean I lived in New Mexico, but I never had that much of an accent. I gave up that dream when I realized that with my skinny calves, I’d never look good in stilettos………uh, anyway, I think my point was, there was some Sue in me too, at one point. I too had arena-sized dreams of superstardom. Hearing this, listening to a man that was so moved by an artist that he took that time to translate his favorite album and make it his own in an endearingly sincere and heartfelt way…I really liked that. What better example of the triumph of the spirit of man, when his passions drive him to produce some strange and beautiful output, by sheer force of the vibration of some mysterious contrapuntal resonance. I can only hope that occasionally, my scribblings approach that level of nakedly honest tribute.

A Package

"Damn it, why do you always wear belts?" she says with a needling grin.

He smiles back, deviously. "Someone buys you a Christmas present, do you bitch at them for wrapping it?"