>>> Item number 27607 from WRITERS LOG9403E --- (54 records) ----- <<<
Date:         Tue, 29 Mar 1994 18:35:02 JST
Reply-To:     WRITERS <WRITERS@NDSUVM1.BITNET>
Sender:       WRITERS <WRITERS@NDSUVM1.BITNET>
From:         Mike Barker <barker@AEGIS.OR.JP>
Subject:      SUB: Public Works

not my favorite theme...

any comments appreciated.  brutal savaging also appreciated.  And if you
ever wanted to lecture someone on "the right way to write a poem," feel
free..

tink
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Public Works
Copyright 1994 Mike Barker

apartments rise, rank on
rank, shut out the sun
shine where scampering packs
of children run, below futon
whose gay banners hide ticky-tacky
tiny balconies opening to tiny lives.

modern.  efficient.  monuments to inhumanity.

factories stretch, grey lines
of assembly pounding daily
lives producing unneeded luxury
to take up space in corners of
those apartments on loans to tiny lives.

mass production. effective.  unstoppable.

school bells ring, ordering
uniformed children into lines
of desks to recite memorized
meaninglessness matched to entry
tests that fail more each year
letting them into colleges to prepare
for work in the factories of tiny lives.

mass education.  minimal competence.  for everyone.

trains run, fat men eat sushi fresh,
kimonos flash and cherry blossoms drift,
the gleam of putrefaction fish scale thin
as public works where few profit but
most survive to raise another generation
for the public works that benefit the tiny lives.

public works.  public benefits.  pubic jerks.

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