We are erasing ourselves from the ground up.
Libraries fall into decline (Echoes of Alexandria)
are sold and converted into five star no-tell motels
for the discerning Wall Street executive who wants
to treat his mistress with a touch of class (Clean Sheets!)
Art auctions and book burnings and botox infused architecture
to appease upper echelon donors with deep pockets
and a penchant for self-aggrandizing and culture wide immolation.
The post-modern critics who have been prophesying
culture decay for years from high atop ivory towers
ensconced in institutions long bereft of education,
smiling and satisfied, fat cat content,
not yet acknowledging the first dry panic
lumped in the back of their throats –
any good prophet will tell you being right
only puts you out of a job in the long run.
Meanwhile in the Big Empty,artists hide in small towns,
dawdle in coffee shops, seek companions with above average
vocabularies to trade stories about the high times
when it was still possible to be an artist in America.
Farms feed lazy cows genetically modified grain,
slaughter and cut them into over-priced steaks
for a genetically modified consumer base.
We are out in the world, seeking picturesque back drops
to sit in front of and wait to die –
or for the rapture. Whichever comes first.
*written in response to an article in The Nation about the wholesale desecration of the New York Public Library system