I'd be riding horses if they let me


Edie Sedgwick during the making of the Andy Warhol film "Since (Space)," by Billy Name, 1965

From Michael Brownstein's "epic, visionary, kaleidoscopic treatise/poem" world on fire (2002), which if you haven't yet read, you really should:

...Notice how language is used here, dear reader.

Why should protected lands be despoiled for at most six years
worth of energy?

Do you trust the phrase "environmentally friendly?"

Is there any connection between drilling for natural gas and
addressing the problem of power shortages?

How easy is it for you to spot the greed peeking out of every
paragraph?

Understand that Mr. Bush, his cronies, and many of his
appointees are the oil industry.

Realize that nowhere above is development of alternative energy
sources mentioned.

Consider that the energy crisis referred to might be minor, tem-
porary, or even intentional.

Glance at the calendar as you read this.

What's today's date?

How much of the above has already come to pass?

What other areas of potential profit have been approached in
similar fashion?

* From his 1975 book of poems Strange Days Ahead:

The Sidewalk

The sidewalk never changes. The street
Always changes. It changes my feet --
On the outside of this old apartment wall
Street violence and harsh dark speech
The heartless gunning of an idiot's engine
His numberless swift cars
That spew out noise like rubble down the street
Cutting between the two great academic lines of heat
The positive and negative poles
Of the sidewalks, always too hard
For the defeated pairs and pairs and pairs of feet

These feet are gobbled down dreamily by Time
Who is Chronos by Goya and
One of the really Big Boys --
He swerves across the sidewalk at me for a dime
As I leap out and hit the street

Liberty Bells

The liberty bells are ringing

The people pour down from their scallop-shell rooms

To stride excitedly among each other

Distracted and intense, seemingly elated

But fiercely aimless, up & down the streets

Triplets

Exaggerated lives, phony body postures, overblown gestures
Flashy plastic clothes, subliminal packaging, no architecture
Cosmetic patina covering the face, neck and hands

Averted glances, city block survival, celery stalks at midnight
Dogshit, stunted scamores, unisex block and tackle
Inverted weather front, stagnant airshaft, walleyed abdication

Politics, art, artificial beef and monster injected chicken
Aerosol junkies spray themselves illusory jellied youth product
Trash 14th St., vinyl nazi Madison, Plymouth Rock retirement village

Sensory deprivation, smokescreen social causes, "What about me?"
Lowest common denominator, subway to nowhere, quaint souvlaki
People turning into pullets, distributor caps, jack hammers