"The Reader/Der Vorleser" (2008)

Last nite, at what Ivo called a 'civilized' hour (7pm), we went to West San Jose's Santana Row CineArts theater & saw "The Reader" (2008) starring Ralph Fiennes & Kate Winslett playing a Nazi-era working-class German whose 'moral idiocy' led her take job as an Auschwitz guard after one at a Siemens plant. Her tragic flaw is that on trial, she is too simple-minded to not admit that it was a voluntary choice (thus condemning herself) & to disguise that she was illiterate then (finally only learning to read in prison.) The more I tell you about her will only complicate your sympathy for her, but I believe that the only commensurate (forget just) penalty for her & her cohort of 6 female guards is death (for having 'selected' women & children for gassing), yet that isn't the sentence pronounced. Instead, she gets life (serving only 20 yrs) & the others 4.5 years each because they claim "she was in charge" (she wasn't, but doesn't dare admit her illiteracy - which could easily prove it.) Calling her life a tragedy only diminishes the tragic deaths of her victims, so what are we left with? Are we ready to be responsible for all the crimes we committed on our jobs? Or do we believe we’re trapped in History’s web? Did we perform our jobs just to live or only just to survive? If we finally realize our guilt, when & what type of justice do we administer to ourselves as both victims & victimizers? Which wrist do we slash first?

(08-9 FEB 09, Santa Clara CA)

Got starch?

How much starch (if any) does Obama
like in his dress shirts? Some? None?
How’s about a reasonable amount ? Is
he a no-iron, drip-dry guy? Ask his shirt:
“How much fresh sweat does he work up
on an average day?”(Answer:) Lots more
than you actually get to see, soaking in
sweat as he re-nominates his cabinet;
cool to look at, but sizzling in his suit.
Solution: do it all in a Bulls uniform.
Let righteous sweat fly where it may!

(04 FEB 09, Santa Clara CA)v6

Re@ding

People say they don’t read,
meaning books: thick blocks
of thin printed paper. But
everybody reads everything:
food-labels, traffic signs, manga,
newspapers, computer screens.
Like this one, right now.

(01 FEB 09, Santa Clara CA)v7

Tr@nsporting

I don’t drive; I just walk
to the nearest bustop, ride
to the local train station,
get off at the last station,
switch to the subway, catch
a bus going up-hill, walk
up the street, up the steps,
using the cities' innermost
transportational links.

(01 FEB 09, Santa Clara CA)v9

Blurrring

Thinking, writing & talking blur:
have I already written or spoken
this to you? Havent I sent you this
as an e-mail, or posted it on my blog?
Have you already heard it before?
Can you stand hearing it again?

(30 JAN 09, Santa Clara CA)v4

POETS & OTHERS

Poets & others diss the Inaugural poem
as irrelevant or inequal to the day, but
I like how it doesn’t just make Obama
the ‘mutt’ savior of all colors, races, etc.
Its B-roll takes us down to our daily life
where things are now the election's over.
Can we handle the present’s dire conditions?
Do we have a choice? Yes, & we exercised it.
Now to repair a badly damaged country's
damaging others. If that isn’t enuf for you,
what is? Watch it fade to action; action,
correction; repair, reparations. Not quite
noble enuf for you? Get real.


(22 JAN 09, Santa Clara CA) v6

OVER THE HILL

(with & for Alex)

You drove us down CA 17 & over the hill to Santa Cruz
to walk the pier at sunset to watch
big, brown baggy sea-lions barking underneath it
after we’d stuffed ourselves
at our fave Chinese (Ocean City) buffet,
in our private annual tradition.

On the way back, as you drove The Hill,
I told you that I’ve finally realized the best thing
I’ve ever (co-) created (even as a poet) is: You.

(We should all tell our children this truth.)

Just as I would, you replied:
"You have more poems to write."
True, Alex, but no more sons to have co-made
& marvel at as I do you.

You are my beautiful, blond Apollonian look-alike heir;
my do-alike heir’s your sister, dark Maya, my equally
sexy brunette Dionysian daughter.

Each of us has more to say, sing, prove.

(13 JAN 09, Santa Clara CA ) v7