shooting elephants

Inmate correspondent:
As simple and plain as the blank black stamp on the envelope
It screams of love dissatisfaction and hurt, much like the free world.
If only tax dollars would pay for this too.

Drowning under a silver lonely moon, drunk again.
Drunk on my old loneliness, for you I drink, sick again.
The water fills my plastic bottles, as I walk, as I drive, alone.
The salt like mosquitoes stings as we circle around perfect, knowing false.

Mirrors drown. I stand next to your grave, the water fills my lungs.
No one knows you.
I hid them underneath your memories, under our smiles, we are never alone.
And little ropes and pink whitish pills call, the moon smiles and hands me the provisions..
Yet around the corner something is brewing, I have been watching.
Wings, grey, flight, smiles. No fine here for throwing coins, bread, peanuts, trail mix, in honor of poochinie.
Pizza, pop-tarts, sushi, chocolate, and peanut butter scattered for their delight,
we smile.
Legos never built houses this strong.
Fitting in with a dead flower on my wrist, we dine, we drink, we laugh, yet it is still alive.
I fit in when we are alone.
Midgets, mermaids, women with beards, a man with no arms or legs,
I fidget.
On a good day I see good in people, tonight I see nothing worth saving
but my sunfish, a box of ashes, a picture, and a sea horse snow globe.
I am loved, though I cannot feel it now.

Life Underground

I will admit the Los Angeles mass transit system fails in providing consistent and accessible actual transporting, not to mention subway trains on the red line stop running at 1:15 am, which to the bar goer like myself often means a long staggering walk home or waiting for a bus for 45 minutes, yet I like going underground. The way your ears pop shut when you climb down the stairs and the erie quiet below the city streets is as mysterious as it is calm. 20 questions on the tracks. Is it animal mineral or vegetable, it was mineral, and it was a AA battery.
I saw the chubby grey mouse again on line 6. I also met a self proclaimed 'thug' from Nebraska. He actually had the words Nebraska Thug 4 Life tatt'd on his arm. I didn't ask if he also had multiple corn stalks tatt'd on his body. People are strange.

Free Money!

Last night Alex took me to the Bounty. If you haven't been there I highly recommend it. One of the oldest bars in Los Angeles, located in mid Wilshire, the HMS Bounty is nautical themed with lots of model ships, painting of ships, and little cannons that point out the windows. It is very sinister, paneled with old dark wood, and adjacent to the Gaylord Hotel, one of the oldest hotels on Wilshire. I find peace here. Anyway after feeling cooped up and worried about my thesis he suggested we go for a drink, which we did. I suggested playing a game of hot spot, CA’s version of Keno. We both picked 8 numbers, 7 of my numbers hit and I won 500 bucks, just like that. If only lucky 13 would have hit I would have won 10,000.

Ok so now you’re thinking, what a boring post, hurray this bitch won money. What I wanted to write about is the conversation that ensued. You see readers, neither Alex nor myself are keen on spending money or simply having money for that matter. We are the type of people who buy new clothing once a year and by new I mean from that giant circus of a thrift store in frogtown. After mulling it over I thought about putting some of it into a tattoo, yet that in itself seemed wasteful. It’s free money. So what do you do with free money? It’s like when I steal a purse from rich girl in a bar and pull out the cash to give to someone else on the way home who needs it more then she did. I am an ethical thief.

So I asked the owner how many peeps work in the kitchen, yes the Bounty serves food. He looked at me oddly, why, I’m not gonna tip the owner- he makes the bucks already. So I gave each of the line staff 20 bucks and we packed up and left. We decided it would be a much more adventurous move to relocate to downtown and see what trouble we could get into. I thought about giving random people 20 bucks on the subway train, just to get smiles from strangers and then thought about distributing it the homeless sleeping on the streets at the station, as its mid month and I know their assistance is gone, but this seemed pointless too- after all, what’s 20 bucks going to do?

So I am sitting here reading the paper, drinking coffee and wondering, what should I do with it? What would you do?

Termites Feast on Money

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7334033.stm

The most wonderful thing happened today. According to the BBC a trader in the Indian state of Bihar has lost his life savings after termites infesting his bank's safe deposit boxes ate them up. I write that this is a beautiful thing because it simply amuses and awes me that there are creatures, other than humans, whom have no concept of money. It would be like watching as a pigeon tore apart hundred dollar bills to build a nest.

To further amuse me, this man had opened the safety deposit box to keep his fortune hidden from his wife and kids- his family, with whom he was in the process of separating from. I trust this meal was good for all members involved. When irony hands you something to notice you better sit up. It is so odd to me, almost innocently so, how much man is obsessed, if not driven by, paper and what that paper represents when to a simple insect no larger than that rich mans nail the same piece of paper represents a snack. Cheers little termite friend.

'If You're Not At The Table, You're On The Menu'

I just got back from Sacramento.. 816 miles round trip with gas over $3.50 a gallon and you know what it was worth every fucking penny to go up and meet with the people who are cutting our state budget. I went because I could and to speak on behalf of those who could not. I don’t know if people in this state are aware, you know with Britney on the verge of a nervous breakdown and the new season of American Idol starting, but our govenor is about to dramatically slash funding. If revenue, ie taxes, had not been slashed in the past ten years we would have a surplus. However, since the rich need to keep their money and people moaned at the near mention of a $7.00 tax when registering their vehicles at the DMV we need to cut 14 billion from our state budget. The most obvious cuts will be in education and health and human services, not jails or our drug control budgets resulting in the poor once again paying for everyone. Did you know that on average working poor people in this state pay 20% of their income on taxes while the richest only pay 7%, VIVA LA GOVENOR!

To read more about the proposed tax cuts you can go here,
http://www.pe.com/multimedia/pdf/2008/20080111_grf_state_cash.pdf

The most painful are the 802 million dollar cuts in Mental Health 4.8 billion dollar in cuts to education and the elimination of 1,000 child welfare social worker positions.... my point.. say good bye to preventing future criminals and homeless people, but I guess we make more off them in jails then we do when they are able to sustain life on their own.


Write letters to your assembly persons, the govenor, and your local city council, that is if you are able to draw yourself away from myspace and the tv!