Accompanying music.

Ignore the sun’s slander:

as much as there is in the golden retriever,

there is strawberry syrup in the heart o’ the salamander.

Black is the color o’ cola & chocolate,

& I can feel the moon’s flour crumble in my fingertips,

can feel the soggy brown leaves hug my feet

as they pass poems by Hershy, Sunkist, & Tim’s scattered through the street.

Like ancient Greek plays,

torrents quench nerves dried sick by sunburns;

& there’s peace in the chaos o’ carpet floors

scattered with papers, wires, & shirts.

For what is beauty but that which we accept?

Thus, if we accept ugliness, misery, & death…

No.

They don’t.

I take it all back:

all o’ the muddy foot tracks,

all o’ the red marks left by tacks,

all o’ the limbs blown onto my yard,

all o’ the cheap rom hacks o’ Mario Kart.

There’s only room for either day or night,

& the moon’s not full ‘nough to finish that fight;

so we must all be subjected to the light

—the lactose intolerant to be sacrificed.

Sun-burnt eyes:
sparrows snatch turtles
toward tides.

Fruity-pebble morn:
cubicle worker
quotes vid in comments.

Guaranteed
warm or your cash back–
Summer Moon™

«Mmmm…»

Hold it there, Signor Sher: I just

saw you rolling round the sun-caressed

grass villi like a cub fucking

for the 1st time—well, OK, nothing

o’ this I truly saw; but I did glimpse flashing

colors through your eyes into your mind, basking

in your soft cotton sweats &

your puffy jacket. Think you’re the cream on the pumpkin

pie, right? Wrong! We were saving this

sweet & sour sunlight. It wasn’t meant for you.

Nothing is.

That’s right: put it all back where

you found it—all o’ the slick hair-

like grass; all o’ the viney

wrinkles on every oak; every

juicy loose-leaf hugging your

shoeless socked feet; & all 4

seasons. Don’t miss e’en the most worthless

piece. We’ll count them all to ascertain

that they’re all returned.

As for you, you

need to get a clue:

snooze.

Quiza es junio,

pero el celeste gris

y el aire que es tan frío que puede verlo

lo hacen un junio del otoño,

ni del verano ni siquiera de la primavera.

So there.

What a waste. Without a taste,

stretching out for help, but found

none in suns on yellow days,

frowning drowning pastel clown.

Nothing’s sweat in salty tears,

only smeared & only itchy

make up made up of those years—

dark, & yet they still bewitch me.

Dump you down my creaky drain,

please remind me of the rain—

Please! I promise to behave…

Recuerdo cuando oía aquella canción en el radio.

No la toca no más.

…

I remember when I heard that song on the radio.

They don’t play it anymo’.

…

While an authentically equal economy may be perhaps Utopian[1], those from all corners o’ the Quadratic Inanity[2] who usually use this argument to bolster each o’ their own particular form o’ benign capitalism are hypocritical, for capitalism without corruption is not e’en Utopian, but flat-out logically impossible. Hence why it’s ne’er existed, while true equality did sorta maybe for a short time in Spain once, a’least.

It’s so obvious that capitalism @ its core is corrupt that only American’s deep discomfort with questioning the core principles o’ their dominant ideology, regardless o’ truth & logic, could ‘splain the prevalence o’ this mythical meritorious capitalism—or “equal opportunity without equal outcome,” as conservatives call it. & it’s not just the right that hinges on it: liberals like Paul Krugman & Joseph Stiglitz in their books make lofty promises o’ returning to some mythical fair capitalism that they imagine existed in the glorious 50s—well, to whites, a’least—thanks to moderate welfare & regulation. It’s probably true that these—the welfare & regulation, not the white supremacy—do improve society o’er laissez-faire capitalism, if the success o’ Nordic social democracy is an indication; but corruption is not simply a relative circumstance that’s worse than what’s possible, but an absolute circumstance that applies regardless o’ what worse alternatives may exist. In truth, ending political/economic—I only use both words ‘cause o’ westerners’ wrongheaded insistence that they’re different—corruption would require change so radical that it’d probably require outright equality, which I’ve already states is probably Utopian. If that is the, understandable, belief o’ moderate liberals, then they should honestly acknowledge that the true end o’ corruption is impossible, but that their moderate reforms are the best people can hope for. Showing policies’ relative strength compared to other existing policies doesn’t prove those policies’ absolute quality.

What makes capitalism inherently corrupt? The answer’s hid in the name: capital, the creation o’ wealth from wealth, whether investment, interest, $ itself, or through using property to gain an advantage. The definition o’ a corrupt system is that the output affects the input—a’least in a positive way. This is ‘cause it creates a self-perpetuating cycle o’ victory creative further victory. This is why the equal opportunity that conservatives tout is necessary for meritoriousness: in order to be truly competitive, all contestants must start @ the same position. Obviously wealth—money & property—is the prime outcome, the measure o’ success; thus, any instance in which wealth itself creates opportunities for wealth-creation, including the common methods I’ve mentioned earlier, is corrupt. This obviously wouldn’t fit within conservatives’ call for equal opportunity: since opportunities such as investment are obviously influenced by how much wealth one has, then equal opportunity & equal outcome are the same.

What’s funny is that this is e’en mo’ obvious when one looks @ a common metaphor mainstream economists use to describe money’s affect on “the market”: $ votes. Consumers—people with money, & thus some success already—control how the market runs, which controls how money is outputted. Such a system is the equivalent o’ gerrymandering: the rich controlling the criteria that decides who gets to become rich. &, as economists themselves clearly agree, it’s the core o’ market systems.

Footnotes:

[1] Those who argue that Leninist countries like the former Soviet Union & North Korea’s evil were due to excess democracy or equality should merely be pointed & laughed @; their ideology has clearly left them immune to any semblance o’ reality.

[2] Conservatism, laissez-faire libertarianism, centrism, & liberalism—the 4 mainstream ideologies.

I’m not ‘fraid o’ the night,

where light illuminates the dark & dark illuminates the light;

‘stead I fear the day,

when the flesh-faced hunters—Aughooo!—wake,

marching out on the open plain,

as if we don’t all know what’s @ stake ‘tween our stakes.

Day like a desert saps me dry

till I become drunk on inebriated light & stumble blind.

Contrastingly, the night makes me much less anxious,

wrapping me with its twins: breeze & blankets.

Ignore the slander that night has no light

from those who ignore electricity & fireflies.

Seriously,

everyone knows ’bout the electricity & fireflies.