Untitled 12/1/11*

We are erasing ourselves from the ground up.

Libraries fall into decline (Echoes of Alexandria)

are sold and converted into five star no-tell motels

for the discerning Wall Street executive who wants

to treat his mistress with a touch of class (Clean Sheets!)

Art auctions and book burnings and botox infused architecture

to appease upper echelon donors with deep pockets

and a penchant for self-aggrandizing and culture wide immolation.

The post-modern critics who have been prophesying

culture decay for years from high atop ivory towers

ensconced in institutions long bereft of education,

smiling and satisfied, fat cat content,

not yet acknowledging the first dry panic

lumped in the back of their throats –

any good prophet will tell you being right

only puts you out of a job in the long run.

Meanwhile in the Big Empty,artists hide in small towns,

dawdle in coffee shops, seek companions with above average

vocabularies to trade stories about the high times

when it was still possible to be an artist in America.

Farms feed lazy cows genetically modified grain,

slaughter and cut them into over-priced steaks

for a genetically modified consumer base.

We are out in the world, seeking picturesque back drops

to sit in front of and wait to die –

or for the rapture. Whichever comes first.

*written in response to an article in The Nation about the wholesale desecration of the New York Public Library system