You Are Not a Statue
Mark Yakich
And I am not a pedestal.
We are not a handful of harmless
scratches on pale pink canvas.
Today is not the day to stop
looking for the woman
to save you. What was once
ivory is wood. What was once
whalebone is cotton.
My coif and corset are duly
fastened, and your shirttail is
tied in a diamond knot.
You may be the giver
of unappreciated nicknames
and the devoted artist
who has given my still life
life. But we can never reach
each other's standards.
You want to condemn me
to eternity. I want to make you
no more perfect than you
used to be. We are not
together, we are not alone.
This poem and the news of the last few weeks brings to mind Marvin Gaye's song, What's Going On? and the Macbeth witches' refrain, fair is foul, and foul is fair.
Paradox, outrage, disingenuous, dissembling, deplorable are the words of the day.
Paradox:
In response to the image of the young woman being dragged and beaten in Cairo,Secretary of State Hillary Clinton chastised Egypt's military for,
"This systematic degradation of Egyptian women dishonours the revolution, disgraces the state and its uniform and is not worthy of a great people."
Um, like, what about the "systematic degradation" of American citizens (women included) who were beaten, dragged by the hair, and pepper-sprayed during Occupy demonstrations of the past few months?
Dissembling:
And then there's the banker's facile polemic aimed at the "imbeciles".
Disingenuous:
And then Chris Moody's article on Frank Luntz's anti-occupy talking points.
Sigh.
Deplorable:
And then, NDAA - National Defense Authorization Act just passed.
Holy Fourth Ammendment!
Outrage:
Say you want a revolution? Well, mess with the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the American Dream, but, mess with our Internet via SOPA- Stop Online Piracy Act, and you may just get one.
Okay. Chillax.
I am spun up today if you can't tell. Perhaps it's just that I can't deal with the idea of less sunlight today, or it may just be that I need to put myself on a news diet, a news fast, and swear off world events for a week, or two.
Or it could be that it's time all of us on this tiny planet should heed the words of Yakich's poem, We are not together, we are not alone.
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