In between notebooks
writing on the back of bank statement envelopes
My money would be in wise temperance
if I didn't haunt auctions for cursed instruments
I got a bargain baglama in route from Greece
it's just the chase
the replacement of writing songs and hard work
I could at least join the fox hunts
but don't forget coming from those that are forced to hunt
Sometimes envious of that pressure again
but don't resent cause it's just weakness
What I can't force myself to emulate
the neo-Malthusianism of my anointed material condition
_________________­

I'm back at it
running out of space
Might have to switch to that student loan
refinancing scheme from Chase
I won't even open it cause
I'm just waiting for society to value
education as a better use of time than
bailing out bankers gambling on the
backs of the poor and middle class that take all the risk
You swindle their paycheck and taxes too
Worshiping at the alter of the greenback printer
Sell your grandma and your grandchildren's future
__________________

I think I ran out of unimportant mail to write upon
I need to do my taxes so I can stop stressing
about hoarding unopened letters
I'm afraid I'll find some catastrophe like a disease
or a stolen identity
There's too much to fear in the 21st century
Yes, how weird
there's no aristocratic family lording over my plot of land
I'm not even a renter anymore except
to the bank and I get my food from multi-national global kings
Much less personal than the ****** that used to rule our lives
Now they're depersonalized into the corporate body
Escaping heaven's mandate
I suppose
Through layer and layer of fabric reality
the market, democracy, technology
is the belief that this whole world is fake
Ascribing deity to digital creators
Bad faith actors
Pretending it's other than profit you desire
"Profit's just a means"
but you need more means to make more means
What's the real product you're peddling?
Do you not have pride beyond the money making aspect?
Why do you highlight such shortsightedness?

150 years ago was the 1870s

Namaste señoras,
          namaste

Bleakness in my future, but not for me alone
In fact, through my friends and modest financial luck
I think I may have escaped the worst of it all

You did your hardest climbing and are resting on a cliff side
My eyes focus too ******* the bubbling tar pits below that
threaten to swallow up the progress of the last century
Instead I should rehumanize my eyes
from this microcosmic eagle sight

An eagle soars above it all between snatching
voles, moles, snakes, and other wretched beasts
To her it's all a day's work
It's us humans that envy her flight and dignify her job
We can choose symbols ourselves

I hope for the best in the world while
knowing nature doesn't care
Whether it's the trees and mountains or
the fountains of hive mind free markets
It's only people that give value to the world

About when I graduated in 2009, America tried on a strange glow up for the next 10 years. Dive bars, chain restaurants, and bumping clubs started to be seen as tacky by young adults. New Ideas, seemingly home grown and more authentic sprung up;  craft breweries, farm to table restaurants, concept bars, and quirky shops selling only alpaca wool socks. The walls and floors were brick and rough wood. The tables were stone and the lights were strings of bare bulbs, dimly dangled over minimalist décor and ferns.

Killing it from Khitomer to Herkimer
Garfield's Insults, Put Downs, and Slams
The light of Truth at High Noon
is not for tender leaves
Will you help me revive this dead Earth?

How can I follow up?
Sipping tea, realizing my dark age in the ides
of March was just a melancholic cover up for
intensive art and getting **** done
"Adulting," I hate that word
We can learn so much from having a child-like nature
But they got you coping with drudgery by
coddling you in comic book imagery
Is your boss your dad that gives you play time or
a **** that's increasingly stealing more of your time, and money?

Stand up if you have the energy
The old don't protest cause
they got nice pensions from FDR and Mao Zedong
We're still the ever lazy young
with distinctive wealth gaps
not seen in a couple generations
It's a grim calculation by cold algorithms
as if that absolves the humans that
put the spirit of the questions into them

How much can we make them work so
they don't have time to protest but can still survive?

We've already stopped the pensions but
how can we stop social security?

It's been well invested
can we really just say the money's run out?

Yes, I suppose they really do believe anything
if you couch it right

Good work everyone.

How would the best user friendly widget
stay that way in a profit incentive?
The physical products escape this unseen
(They're thrown out en masse when profit fades)
The internet’s been a slow fade
from revolutionary layouts and interaction
to the bare minimum you could tolerate
Today most are conditioned not to bat an eye
when the most trusted news sites
are filled with grotesquely glitching ads
that look worse than a 2001 spam virus
Selling sweatshirts with an incomprehensible
automated message containing your last name
Then it switches to threats
the FBI wants to take over my machine

Such is life today
Ignoring what we think we can