Provoking Behaviours...

Today the L Train was like a dream of what it could be: hurtling through space underneath the East River, I was at school before I'd even listened to a few songs on my iPod. It's been all about DJ Spooky lately, paranoid vibes from the ether all about us with dystopian forebodings grumbling from the froth of the ocean, killing the little mollusks and plankton by melting their shells. It's all coming back to us one way or the other, but for now it would be nice if researchers could research and lovers could love so I'm all about watching what happens with these elections.

I can't look away and it's hard to watch the late surge toward our basest emotions and the self-righteousness, which has all the ethical and moral weight of "my dog ate it", acting as surrogate protector of us all. Bush talks about Democrats winning for the Terrorists, whoever they are this week, and George Allen lets his classroom bullies beat up some snot-nosed wanna-be Rabelais and watch the video, they look so focused and convinced of their rightness that you expect to hear about how they took care of that cattle thief. It's like what it must have been like to watch Pinkerton's men off-duty at some Baltimore bar taking care of a wrong-way wandering unionizer. Tucking back in their shirts and straightening their ties, looking like they did something and reasserting their place in the grand order of things. I want a pair of those pants. Burning those pants is like burning the flag.

The Democrats are apologizing for insinuating we're stuck in Iraq or something, maybe they think we called the wrong people stupid, but as far as I can make out, it looks like the guy being called stupid is kind of dumb; we didn't know what we were doing in Iraq from before we got there, but still he insists on saying that's what's keeping us safe, so Dick "Dick" C. and Dick "Dick" Rumsy are going to stay on the line far from the shooting for another couple years or so, and all those people are dying like the graham crackers a couple hours before supper. Because the blood there is only just prelude to the deluge. Dark days and all this going through the motions like it means something besides the dark days are coming.

I lost a student Halloween, he was hit by a livery cab on Harlem River Drive, he had been suspended for awhile, so I hadn't seen him since I guess late September. He was a good kid in my classroom, and I liked him, wrote a note about him to someone saying he showed some promise, he would be ok. He was throwing eggs at cars with some friends, I teach them too. They got spooked and ran when they actually hit something. Tried to cross the highway and he stumbled on the median. The driver didn't stop. I found out he liked playing ping pong. I never knew that.