behind you in the city

You know my name

i don’t know yours

wandering town

choking heat vapor

___

I know your face but you don’t know mine

glass shop windows, sunlit refraction

smell the melting city

living Dalí, dead world

___

I follow you

black jean jacket

sidewalks loaded

fifty dollars for a cake

feral panhandlers

muse drifting

pay the mortgage

chase your dreams

___

Aggressive music

molded grapes in a bag

house for rent

chrome forty-five

fuck the president

you look rebellious

today

___

Ice cream

a summer shell

a voice: love me

you’re looking for something

credit card swipe

crooked bacchus

___

suddenly Stan Getz

in a raincoat

no bus fare

Colfax meanderer

i’ve met you before,

he says

____

sculptures of horses

destroying each other

temporarily i lose you

forget your voice

family burdens, debts

hang on walls

___

joyous are we

behind sunglasses

behind you in the city

who’s behind me?

The Great Wall, by Eliot Weinberger

Richard Nixon, visiting the Great Wall of China in 1972, said: “I think you would have to conclude that this is a great wall.”

Ronald Reagan, visiting the Wall in 1984, said: “What can you say, except it’s awe-inspiring? It is one of the great wonders of the world.” Asked if he would like to build his own Great Wall, Reagan drew a circle in the air and replied: “Around the White House.”

Bill Clinton, visiting the Wall in 1998, said: “So if we had a couple of hours, we could walk ten kilometers, and we’d hit the steepest incline, and we’d all be in very good shape when we finished. Or we’d be finished. It was a great workout. It was great.”

George W. Bush, visiting the Wall in 2002, signed the guest book and said: “Let’s go home.” He made no other comments.

Barack Obama, visiting the Wall in 2009, said: “It’s majestic. It’s magical. It reminds you of the sweep of history, and that our time here on Earth is not that long, so we better make the best of it.” During his visit, the Starbucks and KFC at the base of the Wall were closed.

Weinberger, Eliot. The Ghosts of Birds, New Directions Books, New York, 2016: 91.

on Nietzsche

…Nietzsche wished to make a rule of the exception. The higher self becomes the measuring stick against which human life is evaluated. To realize his potential, man must struggle such that his higher self may rule. One seeks, in other words, to extend the time one lives in a state of inspiration…The feeling of inspiration, of a heightened sense of power, is attainable only when the soul rises above itself…Whoever demands greatness from himself is subject to unending inner struggle…

Leslie Paul Thiele, Nietzsche and the Politics of the Soul