September 25, 2007 – 8:57 pm
I broke the mold. I made a mockery
of your elation. I tried my hand
at gravity and watched everything
fly away
and become the moon
and so it was that nothing
stood still again. And life was all
a float.
*
My best friend Charlie came
to visit me yesterday, said there’s no kicking
the ball without me. I looked into
his dull brown eyes and wondered was it
me or was he really that lost, me
holding a ball for him was joy?
I take it away, I’m a holder back,
you have to earn it, with me,
and still it won’t go sailing.
He said he loved me for how I kneel
and look hopingly into his eyes.
I said, “You fall on your ass
every time, Charlie; don’t you mind?” Read More »
September 21, 2007 – 9:22 pm
Just as I was beginning to sketch out this column, commissioned as it was by Global Comment, I hit a minor snag: I had no clue what I was talking about. Apparently, the whole situation in the Middle-East has become so depressing that I’ve managed to block it out entirely. I had to go to Wikipedia to make sure Olmert was still the Israeli PM. Then again, given the recent reliability issues with Wiki, I could be entirely wrong on that count. Not that I care.
Without having read anything about Israel in the past two years, I can still make the following statements with absolute certainty: within the last couple weeks, some Palestinian person did something violent, probably involving explosives, in which Israeli Jews were killed. The IDF responded by assassinating the person(s) involved and/or bulldozing their houses. There was considerable collateral damage. Read More »
September 17, 2007 – 9:23 pm
I must be stuck in some dark-humoured comedy sketch. Everywhere I go in Kyiv, the same exact conversation follows me (well, perhaps I’m fudging a little, one conversation I overheard involved two university professors, gossiping about another university professor who may or may not be sleeping with a student) – and the gist of it is this: the much-vaunted election does not matter. If some element of life in Ukraine gets better following September 30, another element will probably get much worse. Read More »
September 17, 2007 – 9:23 pm
The long bitter saga of DePaul University’s scandalous decision to deny tenure to one of its most prolific and internationally renowned public intellectuals, Professor Norman Finkelstein, is officially over; but not before bringing to light what some consider the most dangerous trend stifling intellectual freedom in the American academia, and other circles of influence.
The most famous among the trend-setters are Alan Dershowitz with his legal bullying tactics, and Daniel Pipes and David Horowitz with their infamous Campus Watch. Their apparent target is any and all voice of influence, particularly in academia, that challenges the blind consensus on the Israel issue and/or questions whether Israel’s treatment of the Palestinian people is fair or predicated solely upon self-defense. Read More »
September 5, 2007 – 8:59 pm
I’ve forgotten the ending.
It’s one of the things they took
in those long days of dull
yellow light – a way to pinch out
the flame and watch the smoke rise
against the window at night. Read More »
