This Week's Writing 5/17/24

Kavanaugh's debts, Zionist poems, Lost in Translation, and more.

Goose and Gusgus, together! They are so loving that I am sure they would become paid subscribers and support the blog if they could, but we unfortunately cannot take donations in floof. But! If you have the resources, the inclination, and the floof, please consider helping me keep dogs and cats alike in the style to which they have become accustomed. It’s $50/year, $5/month.

And here’s what I published this week!

Politics

The NYT/Siena poll is ugly—but there’s some good news for Biden tucked in there. (Public Notice)

The influential Zionist poem that attacks diaspora Jews “with trembling knees.” (EIH)

Who paid Kavanaugh’s debts? White capital. (EIH)

Cultural Criticism

Lost in translating the male mid-life crisis movie. (Splice Today)

Who wrote Auden’s “The Lesson”? (EIH)

Poetry

A tribute to the greats. (Synchronized Chaos)

Ezra Pound was a hateful clown.

That’s the poem.
Fuck that guy.

A sonnet I wrote more than 34 years ago! (Moss Puppy)

Traps

Last summer at work, Ken locked Cora
in the filter-pit and let the pool water
rush into the darkness
until it reached her neck. Today

the pit is spotted with dead frogs.
“Can’t they smell the chlorine?” Ken demands
from the deck. Below him, I keep cleaning the filters
as the water, the dirt, the hair,

the frogs, swirl down the disposal pipe.
Some of the frogs fall apart
as the water level drops,
become dull-green shreds. This isn’t

how I want to remember frogs. Above me,
Ken’s hand rests on the open pit door.