During which?

Whenever I hear the query “During which?”, as a native New Englander, born in Salem MA, I don't assume the querier is referring to The Great Witchcraft Hysteria of 1692 - as it’s called in Salem..

Witches, real/alleged, admitted/accused, just aren’t my cup of fired, caffinated tea (caffeinless rooibos is.) Nor need witches be. I leave witchly-fabrication to my fellow Salem-born author Nathaniel Hawthorne and his poisoned/poisoning character Beatrice in his "Rapaccini's Daughter" (1823)

Instead, I hear the clipped Yankee diction that my mother learned as a (Polish-speaking) neighborhood child at 'The House of the 7 Gables' Settlement House, City of Salem Public Schools, Salem High School, where & when she learned to speak Salem English.

In Salem, there’s no such thing as ‘overly-correct’ speech. How could there be? There’s English, American English, New England English, Yankee English, and (ultimately, in Salem) Salem English. Which I spoke, from infancy, having learned it at home, along with Belarusian Polish and my father's transplanted Glaswegian Scottish. During which mix-acquisition, Salem English seems to have prevailed. Ask anyone who hears me.

YE@RS LATER, CHENEY

Years later, CHENEY

prepares to discover

who his he@rt-donor was.

Fearing it was a black lesbian,

he asks his gay daughter

to accompany him.

“This way there’ll be nothing

sleazy about doing this,” he says

as they walk the long corridors

of Walter Reed Hospital, past

its crumbling walls, great rusted

window-grates, closed bathrooms.

CHENEY begins to realize

it might have been a soldier

who might have served in Iraq,

& trembles uncontrollably. His

daughter holds him tightly.

They finally arrive at

the janitors’ slack-room.

Nobody there is white.

Some are women.

CHENEY blurts out:

“Anybody here a lesbian?”

One woman speaks up:

“My wife w@s.”

CHENEY’s he@rt thumps,

more than, more than once.

(25 MAR 12, Santa Clara CA)v1

CHENEY gets He@rt

CHENEY gets He@rt

after waiting 20 mos.

for a transplant @ 71,

after 5 heart-attacks

since 30. His well -

& ill-wishers view

this as overdue.

Doctors & reporters

describe it without

dread & awe, few

lipo-slipping that

CHENEY’s really

an implantee, not

transplantee.

(25 MAR 12, Santa Clara CA)v3

What have you done...for a Left Liberal?

Sometimes I've felt that Liberals fail to offer each other support even when in need, as tho being Liberal (i.e., on the Left) were considered sufficient consolation in itself, need notwithstanding. Agreement in mere principle/perception alone is just not enough. Mutual support is equally as necessary. Nowadays, even moreso.

When Conservatives (i.e., on the Right) share in gains, they do, in fact, support each other, because they apparently believe they have a (natural, literal) right to those gains as (legitimate) earnings.. They expect to get...plenty, & then they expect to get plenty more.

What do (Left) Liberals get? Do they only give? Does being a (Left) Liberal always require selfless heroism? If so, it must inevitably weary them, wear them out. Asking for help is not usually considered very leftish behavior, but it's real. Help me to restore the strength of the now plainly needful Left. I repeat: Help Me. (What have you done in support of a needful Leftist recently?)

COOPERATE

Cooperate

after George Lakoff

To recover value from Values,
we'd better make ours appealing:
We cooperate; They compete..

(13 MAR 12, Santa Clara CA)v5