I gave this girl a human name, and call it softly;
Ape the role, though I’m no father.
This ersatz child diverts
my nurture to her needs,
will never care for me in frailty
or carry on my name.
Commensal more than parasite,
she shares the prey
she captures with her infant paws:
The smiles of disarmed passers-by
which I imagine are for me.
Draft 4: Dog Walking
Let’s be clear: I am no father,
But I can’t deny I play the part.
I gave this girl a human name and call to her
falsetto: “Come to daddy.”
And, god help me, I’ve bought her tiny sweaters.
I’ve knelt for her in the dark
in the rain in the parking lot
behind abandoned restaurants.
She diverts my instincts to her needs,
this ersatz child, this changeling, who will never
care for me in frailty, nor carry on my family name.
But no mere parasite, she shares the prey
she captures with her infant paws:
the disarmed smiles of passers-by
which I imagine are for me.
Book review up at Bookdwarf.com
The missus has posted a review I wrote of Gary Vaynerchuk’s The Thank You Economy over at bookdwarf.com.
Recently Shared By You
A list of items I have found interesting recently:
A Softer World: Glass Half Empty: Funny comic.
Texts from Last Night: Cake: Drunken memos rarely speak such great truths.
Brad Delong: Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo: Math plus grammar equals awesome.
Angry Bear: Why The Rich Love High Unemployment: Everybody knows the game is fixed.
Felix Salmon: The Gingriches and Tiffany: When a Loan Becomes Lobbying. The poor stay poor and the rich stay rich.
Teichman: Cobe Learns English and Hammond Organ Simulation. Funny writing about great hacks.
2nd draft: Dog Walking
I am no father, but won’t deny paternity
I play the part, have knelt for her
in the dark in the rain in the parking lot
of an abandoned restaurant.
This cuckoo’s hatchling in my human nest
diverts my instincts to her needs,
cannot fulfill the full imperative of life.
No mere parasite, she shares the prey
she captures with her infant paws:
the disarmed smiles of passers-by
which I imagine are for me.
First Draft: Dog-Walking
I am no father, but can’t deny paternity implied:
I’ve played the part, have knelt for her in the dark
in the rain in the parking lot of an abandoned restaurant,
have fed and bathed and clothed her.
This cuckoo’s hatchling in my human nest
who diverts my instincts to her needs
cannot fulfill the full imperative of life,
but still, commensal, shares the prey
she captures with her infant paws:
the disarmed smiles of passers-by
which I imagine are for me.
Note to Moderate, Electable Democrats: You’ve Gone Too Far Right
I’m a Massachusetts Liberal, so I know I’m to the left of most electable politicians. It may be the stereotype, but I’m basically the sort who thinks it would be cool to double the tax on gasoline and use the money to build trains powered by unicorns and rainbows. So when moderate electable Democratic politicians disappoint me, nobody’s surprised. They never do what I want.
When they disappoint and infuriate my mother-in-law, that’s news. She’s a middle-of-the-road moderate Democrat who lives in suburban Atlanta. She’s Catholic, married once and still married—to a military man no less—so she’s hardly what you’d call a fire-breathing liberal. She’s been voting for moderate, electable Democrats since JFK, but without being involved in any activism, boat-rocking, or any of that. She’s practically the definition of a mainstream Democratic voter.
And this entirely sensible woman, who appreciates compromise and knows the difficulty of policy-making in Washington, is absolutely furious. She is enraged that the President and the legislature are failing to stand up to defend the social safety net. She’s angry about threats to everything, not just the things that benefit her, like Medicare and Social Security. She wants to know why more people aren’t outraged, aren’t warning the world about what will happen if we cut early-childhood programs, women’s health, nutrition, education, the environment, Medicaid, and food stamps.
She called me on a tear this week, and wanted to know how she could get a message to Washington that she and everyone she knows want Democrats to fight back harder against Tea Party-led destruction of the good that government can do in this country.
Reasonable grown-up Democrats, this is a warning: My mother-in-law is your base. She has been your reliable vote since the middle of the last century. If you’ve moved so far to the right that suburban Atlanta housewives are angry at you, you’re just following the Tea Party over a cliff.
Absence Makes the Heart
Where are my manners.
I went to Costa Rica. Here are pictures.
I got a dog. Here are pictures.
Who Killed Bambi is my new favorite thing on the internet right now.
Although New America’s coverage of the student loan biz is pretty clever as well. Different focus, obviously.
First Draft: Earthquake Warning
At first word of the disaster
We rushed down to the beach to watch.
But nothing happened. By sunset
It was obvious that nothing would.
In the shadows disappointed victims
lit cigarettes and watched the sea.
Eating the Future
Krugman’s editorial awhile back noted that the Republican majority in the House is pretty much dedicated to eating the future. That is, they’re cutting everything that won’t hurt until later. So, they’re cutting nutrition for children, because children don’t vote, and malnourished adults won’t be a problem for another 15 years.
And they’re cutting youth sports and after-school activities. In response, we’re seeing a surge in boxing as parents try to find a cheap alternative to letting the kids hang out on the corner after school being recruited into criminal mischief. We’re likely to see more crime from the kids who can’t stick with the parentally-sponsored sports, and more brain damage from the kids who do, but neither one will hurt for five or twenty years. And a crime wave isn’t even a problem for Republicans, it just feeds into the narrative of undeserving criminal classes that need to be punished.
