#599 On Death’s Dark Machete

Fate's marionette, you ambled blind
Through Life's dark byways - lost, unmoored.
With every hurt, you hurt in kind,
Unthinking, Life has left you floored.
Your eyes alit with Terror's blaze,
Death's dark machete counts the days.

(inspired by Paul Auster's father, and all the other traumatised, useless fathers out there)

On Plucking the Bitter Fruit

They asked me to describe 
what it is that
I am feeling right now:

The disappointment of a son
and the alienation of a man
the bitterness of hopes
and the sweetness of vindication
the smallness of petty disagreements
and the enormity of loss
even if it is just the losing of you

I buried you yesterday
and I accepted your mantle
but I refuse this myth-making
this farce of false memories

You left us yesterday
but I left you long ago.

Today’s Reads I

  1. “Herschel Walker, the Republican Senate nominee in Georgia who has been a vocal critic of absentee fathers in Black households, acknowledged Tuesday that he has a second son with whom he has little interaction.” #politicians #hypocrisy
  2. “This is not about grammar or spelling errors, but disrespect for the national language. The proposed fine is not to punish but to evoke love and patriotism to the country.” #totalitarianlogic
  3. Marc Andreessen on loving the humanities: “I spent the first 25 years of my life trying to understand how machines work,” Marc says. “Then I spent the second 25 years, so far, trying to figure out how people work. It turns out people are a lot more complicated.” https://conversationswithtyler.com/episodes/marc-andreessen/