For once, I will not be getting intoxicated this New Year's Eve. That is because early tomorrow morning, at 10:46am, I will be boarding a flight for Tel Aviv, beginning a ten-day educational trip to Israel-Palestine with the Olive Tree Initiative.
It will have been exactly a decade since I last set foot in the region.
The circumstances on the ground will have drastically changed, as has the nature of my trip.
In my last journey, made during the dying days of the Second Intifada, I encountered a nation locked down under the (purely) psychological siege of suicide bombers and ready to brutally retaliate against the "existential threat" of Palestinian militancy, whether from the secular Fatah or religious Hamas.
Today, with most of the "Separation Barrier" (or "Security Fence," per Israel, completed), Israelis not only are freer from violence than they have ever been in their state's tumultuous history but they have become ever more detached from the troubles of the Occupation. The experience of the Intifada, however, continues to embitter many, even on the Left, towards Palestinian nationalism. As a result, the silent majority of Jewish Israel cares about doing nothing to change the status quo.
On a personal level, my political orientation has changed from Zionist to non-Zionist in the course of time.
Since I traveled with a Jewish Day School on my last trip, I was naturally immersed in a traditional Zionist milieu. We traveled only to sites associated with Jewish history (e.g. Jerusalem, Masada, the Palmach Museum), avoiding even rest stops in Palestinian towns. The maps we received showed an "Israel" that encompassed towns like Hebron and Schehem, from the river to the sea...
This trip, I will be traveling with a Conflict education group, dedicate to equal exposure of both sides. In the course of 10 days, I will traverse Israel-Palestine, warts and all, from the Separation Barrier to the Al-Aqsa Mosque and Western Wall to the Golan Heights.
Through it all, I hope to gain first-hand observations that can substantiate (or challenge?) the nuanced positions that I have acquired through years of research on the subject.
I hope everyone has a happy New Year and hope to have lots to discuss on my return.
Wednesday, December 31, 2014
Thursday, December 18, 2014
Los Angeles' New York moment
I was inspired to write this post while waiting for Lyft requests at 2am in the late-night, on Tuesday (technically Wednesday). More accurately, I was parked on the corner of La Brea Avenue and First street in the number of Miracle Mile watching, to my surprise, a rather steady cascade of cars pass by.
This was no traffic jam for sure,but rather a steady flow of traffic that indicated, if anything, that even on this odd hour on a weeknight, life was happening.
This, in turn, brought to mind the Halloween weekend, on which Beverly Blvd backed up for over a mile, from La Cienaga Blvd. to Doheny Drive. For most of the two point five miles that I drove, from around Highland Avenue to Doheny, traffic moved at a snail's pace. Meanwhile sidewalks, at every stretch of the journey, teemed with costumed-clad figures...as many walking, as waiting for a car.
For eons, Los Angeles has been ridiculed as a subpar exemplar of a Global metropolis. Huxley's quip about "Nineteen suburbs in search of a city" captures the perceived lack of urban contiguity and, indeed, cosmopolitanism, quite wittily.
However, lately, the city has accrued a remarkable degree of cosmopolitan urbanism that can be seen almost as a coming of age.
Part of this has come in the form of a diversified, respectable food culture (with Los Angeles recently being named the best food city in America). The sophisticated theater and arts scene in this once-named "city of plastic" have also drawn acclaim.
But perhaps the biggest boon to Los Angeles' status as a city has come in the form of an increasingly concentrated population.
It is no longer a secret that Los Angeles is one of the five densest cities in the country (if not the densest, depending on the measure you use).LA boasts a concentration of people and events that once associated with cities like NEW YOrk.
http://www.laweekly.com/informer/2012/03/26/los-angeles-beats-new-york-in-urban-density
Moreover, this density appears to be considerably concentrated, particularly focusing on what one USC grad student calls a "Santa Monica-Wilshire corridor" stretching linerly across the central LA basin.
True, there are significant job clusters beyond this confined space, in parts of the San Fernando Valley and the South Bay, for instance. Residential development spreads out much farther apace.
However, even the different job cores are relatively close together and culture and entertainment are concentrated even more tightly.
LA's public transit infrastructure is notoriously undeveloped. Less well-known is the fact that Los Angeles roads are also woefully outdated, lacking the width or the surface structure necessary to support the millions of automobilesthat traverse them daily.
Then again, the near ubiquity of automobile ownership in Los Angeles is another problem requiring desparate attention.
In any case, if Los Angeles, is to truly shine as the next New York, it must do or die. Policy makers should seize the moment to more forcefully advocate smart growth strategies such as, expanding public transport and improving walkability. In this way, they can tailor the city's growth to the new realities.
This was no traffic jam for sure,but rather a steady flow of traffic that indicated, if anything, that even on this odd hour on a weeknight, life was happening.
This, in turn, brought to mind the Halloween weekend, on which Beverly Blvd backed up for over a mile, from La Cienaga Blvd. to Doheny Drive. For most of the two point five miles that I drove, from around Highland Avenue to Doheny, traffic moved at a snail's pace. Meanwhile sidewalks, at every stretch of the journey, teemed with costumed-clad figures...as many walking, as waiting for a car.
For eons, Los Angeles has been ridiculed as a subpar exemplar of a Global metropolis. Huxley's quip about "Nineteen suburbs in search of a city" captures the perceived lack of urban contiguity and, indeed, cosmopolitanism, quite wittily.
However, lately, the city has accrued a remarkable degree of cosmopolitan urbanism that can be seen almost as a coming of age.
Part of this has come in the form of a diversified, respectable food culture (with Los Angeles recently being named the best food city in America). The sophisticated theater and arts scene in this once-named "city of plastic" have also drawn acclaim.
But perhaps the biggest boon to Los Angeles' status as a city has come in the form of an increasingly concentrated population.
It is no longer a secret that Los Angeles is one of the five densest cities in the country (if not the densest, depending on the measure you use).LA boasts a concentration of people and events that once associated with cities like NEW YOrk.
http://www.laweekly.com/informer/2012/03/26/los-angeles-beats-new-york-in-urban-density
Moreover, this density appears to be considerably concentrated, particularly focusing on what one USC grad student calls a "Santa Monica-Wilshire corridor" stretching linerly across the central LA basin.
True, there are significant job clusters beyond this confined space, in parts of the San Fernando Valley and the South Bay, for instance. Residential development spreads out much farther apace.
However, even the different job cores are relatively close together and culture and entertainment are concentrated even more tightly.
LA's public transit infrastructure is notoriously undeveloped. Less well-known is the fact that Los Angeles roads are also woefully outdated, lacking the width or the surface structure necessary to support the millions of automobilesthat traverse them daily.
Then again, the near ubiquity of automobile ownership in Los Angeles is another problem requiring desparate attention.
In any case, if Los Angeles, is to truly shine as the next New York, it must do or die. Policy makers should seize the moment to more forcefully advocate smart growth strategies such as, expanding public transport and improving walkability. In this way, they can tailor the city's growth to the new realities.
Friday, October 17, 2014
Thoughts on Open Hillel
"There is a painting by Klee called Angelus Novus. It shows an angel who seems about to move away from something he stares at. His eyes are wide, his mouth is open, his wings are spread. This is how the angel of history must look."-Walter Benjamin
Benjamin's image was the image on my mind by the end of my first morning at the Open Hillel conference. Not in the tragic sense that Benjamin intended, where the angel ensnares itself in the "storm ...from paradise," but in the majestic grace of a tremendous, though cataclysmic, rupture in the midst of a dreadful storm. For the first time, an American Jewish organization was listening openly and earnestly to Palestinians praise BDS, to Jewish scholars explore the colonial origins of Zionism, and to a panel that thoroughly debated the implications of one-state and two-state solutions to the conflict.
The morning started off with Professor Rashid Khalidi. Yes, Professor Rashid Khalidi, one of the pre-eminent authorities on Palestinian nationalism, appeared in the breakfast area, chatting with conference organizers as he retrieved Starbucks coffee. Khalidi then proceeded to give a talk in the conference room which was supposed to have dealt with the topic of Palestinian nationalism but which actually focused on the exigency of Open Hillel to the Palestinian cause.
"There are two battles," Khalidi began. "One on the ground, in Palestine...and the other one in the US, the metropole for Israel." If the first was a concrete, physical struggle, the second focused on discourse and the supremacy of ideas.
It was this struggle, the second battle, that Open Hillel was poised to change. "I hope you all realize the importance of this event," Khalidi reminded.
The remainder of the day saw Mark LeVine propose a "dialectical grappling" between anti-Zionist values and the purported Zionist cause (with the intention of enabling a conclusive solution to the "occupation" and "domination" entailed by the former ideology) and a spirited debate between Rebecca Vilkommerson and Peter Beinart over BDS' endgame vision and the role of a two-state solution. The following day, such contentious topics as the presence of racism in Orthodox Judaism and the meaning of the Palestinian "anti-normalization" campaign were broached by panels in a matter of respectful inquiry.
As someone who has expressed considerable ostracism from both my rabbis and Day School friends for merely questioning the logic of Israel's most recent operation in Gaza, witnessing such intellectual openness on the question of Israel and Zionism in a thoroughly Jewish space felt ethereal if not angelic.
"If I am only for myself who am I..." Such could have been the defining message of this week's conference, not only in the substance of its programming but in the underlying caim to transform the Jewish community. Attending the conference granted me personal vindication but I know that if similar relief is to be obtained for the numerous young Jews who are forced to dissemble on Israel-Palestine as well as the countless Palestinians who suffer from the policies advocated by an "Israel Lobby" frontlined by the organized Jewish community, much hard work and activism lies ahead.
Benjamin's image was the image on my mind by the end of my first morning at the Open Hillel conference. Not in the tragic sense that Benjamin intended, where the angel ensnares itself in the "storm ...from paradise," but in the majestic grace of a tremendous, though cataclysmic, rupture in the midst of a dreadful storm. For the first time, an American Jewish organization was listening openly and earnestly to Palestinians praise BDS, to Jewish scholars explore the colonial origins of Zionism, and to a panel that thoroughly debated the implications of one-state and two-state solutions to the conflict.
The morning started off with Professor Rashid Khalidi. Yes, Professor Rashid Khalidi, one of the pre-eminent authorities on Palestinian nationalism, appeared in the breakfast area, chatting with conference organizers as he retrieved Starbucks coffee. Khalidi then proceeded to give a talk in the conference room which was supposed to have dealt with the topic of Palestinian nationalism but which actually focused on the exigency of Open Hillel to the Palestinian cause.
"There are two battles," Khalidi began. "One on the ground, in Palestine...and the other one in the US, the metropole for Israel." If the first was a concrete, physical struggle, the second focused on discourse and the supremacy of ideas.
It was this struggle, the second battle, that Open Hillel was poised to change. "I hope you all realize the importance of this event," Khalidi reminded.
The remainder of the day saw Mark LeVine propose a "dialectical grappling" between anti-Zionist values and the purported Zionist cause (with the intention of enabling a conclusive solution to the "occupation" and "domination" entailed by the former ideology) and a spirited debate between Rebecca Vilkommerson and Peter Beinart over BDS' endgame vision and the role of a two-state solution. The following day, such contentious topics as the presence of racism in Orthodox Judaism and the meaning of the Palestinian "anti-normalization" campaign were broached by panels in a matter of respectful inquiry.
As someone who has expressed considerable ostracism from both my rabbis and Day School friends for merely questioning the logic of Israel's most recent operation in Gaza, witnessing such intellectual openness on the question of Israel and Zionism in a thoroughly Jewish space felt ethereal if not angelic.
"If I am only for myself who am I..." Such could have been the defining message of this week's conference, not only in the substance of its programming but in the underlying caim to transform the Jewish community. Attending the conference granted me personal vindication but I know that if similar relief is to be obtained for the numerous young Jews who are forced to dissemble on Israel-Palestine as well as the countless Palestinians who suffer from the policies advocated by an "Israel Lobby" frontlined by the organized Jewish community, much hard work and activism lies ahead.
Saturday, October 11, 2014
My trouble with the term "anti-Zionism" (pt. II)
Update: I notice that one of the reasons I give below partially overlaps with a statement made in the previous article I wrote on Zionism: since I expressed taking away this (or another reason that I offer) would detract from the article's flow, however, I will keep the article as is.
Watching a spate of Facebook comments from some of my pro-Palestinian friends motivated me to follow up on my post from last year on anti-Zionism.
Many "Palestine Solidarity" Types perceive the ideology of Jewish Nationalism (insofar as it pertains to Palestine) as being responsible for the Palestinian's plight.
Too often, this critical gaze on Zionism takes a reductivist turn. Not only has Zionism positively problematic (as regards its impact on the native Palestinians) but normatively aberrant. "Zionism" is logically coherent and morally deprived, this tangent goes. Thence, as stated by one notorious UN Resolution, Zionism is racism.
As mentioned previously, I find such rhetoric, despite my utmost sympathies with the Palestinian struggle, counter-productive regarding the way in which it can be (mis-) labeled as anti-semitism. Now, I would likely to add four points that challenge the ideological critique of Zionism:
1.Per the magnes Zionist (again), Zionism, as a concept, entails neither ethnic cleansing nor ethnic statehood. If any definition could be given for the word, it would run something like, "support for the well-being of Jewish culture and society in the Land of Israel." Indeed, one could argue that the violence begot by the existing Jewish state's "Occupation" not only threatens the safety of the existing Jewish society their but betrays the ethical values integral to Jewish culture.
2. Given the focus of central Jewish religious texts (most notably, the Torah) on the land of Israel, it makes sense that many Jews feel a historical affinity towards the land, regardless of how they feel about the discrimination/displacement of Palestinians. Sadly, such harmless cultural sentiments too often translate into political support for ethnocracy, but this does not have to be the case. However, when "anti-Zionists" attempt to bring up theories about "Khazar origins" or Palestinian "Canaanites," the implicit denial of Jewish cultural attachment rings as anti-Semitism to Jews nourished on cultural attachment to Israel, thus shutting many ears to the valid critiques of the Israeli state that follow.
3. Rhetoric emanating from the Zionist narrative can be easily molded to accomodate the demands of the "anti-Zionists." For instance: the "law of return" betrays the humanistic values of Jewish society advocated by the likes of Ahad Ha'am. If anti-Zionists were to quote such figures, they could effectively turn Zionists' defense of the legislation on its head.
4. Once again, the system of ethnic privilege and colonialism over which the state of Israel currently presides was not a necessary, even if highly likely, outcome of modern (political) Zionism, and certainly not of pre-modern religious or "cultural" Zionism (by which I mean affinities to the land of Israel stretching back to the time of the Torah). I hope that more Palestine Solidarity Activists-even supporters of a one-state solution-can make clear in the future that they oppose not Zionism so much as the current state of Israel.
Watching a spate of Facebook comments from some of my pro-Palestinian friends motivated me to follow up on my post from last year on anti-Zionism.
Many "Palestine Solidarity" Types perceive the ideology of Jewish Nationalism (insofar as it pertains to Palestine) as being responsible for the Palestinian's plight.
Too often, this critical gaze on Zionism takes a reductivist turn. Not only has Zionism positively problematic (as regards its impact on the native Palestinians) but normatively aberrant. "Zionism" is logically coherent and morally deprived, this tangent goes. Thence, as stated by one notorious UN Resolution, Zionism is racism.
As mentioned previously, I find such rhetoric, despite my utmost sympathies with the Palestinian struggle, counter-productive regarding the way in which it can be (mis-) labeled as anti-semitism. Now, I would likely to add four points that challenge the ideological critique of Zionism:
1.Per the magnes Zionist (again), Zionism, as a concept, entails neither ethnic cleansing nor ethnic statehood. If any definition could be given for the word, it would run something like, "support for the well-being of Jewish culture and society in the Land of Israel." Indeed, one could argue that the violence begot by the existing Jewish state's "Occupation" not only threatens the safety of the existing Jewish society their but betrays the ethical values integral to Jewish culture.
2. Given the focus of central Jewish religious texts (most notably, the Torah) on the land of Israel, it makes sense that many Jews feel a historical affinity towards the land, regardless of how they feel about the discrimination/displacement of Palestinians. Sadly, such harmless cultural sentiments too often translate into political support for ethnocracy, but this does not have to be the case. However, when "anti-Zionists" attempt to bring up theories about "Khazar origins" or Palestinian "Canaanites," the implicit denial of Jewish cultural attachment rings as anti-Semitism to Jews nourished on cultural attachment to Israel, thus shutting many ears to the valid critiques of the Israeli state that follow.
3. Rhetoric emanating from the Zionist narrative can be easily molded to accomodate the demands of the "anti-Zionists." For instance: the "law of return" betrays the humanistic values of Jewish society advocated by the likes of Ahad Ha'am. If anti-Zionists were to quote such figures, they could effectively turn Zionists' defense of the legislation on its head.
4. Once again, the system of ethnic privilege and colonialism over which the state of Israel currently presides was not a necessary, even if highly likely, outcome of modern (political) Zionism, and certainly not of pre-modern religious or "cultural" Zionism (by which I mean affinities to the land of Israel stretching back to the time of the Torah). I hope that more Palestine Solidarity Activists-even supporters of a one-state solution-can make clear in the future that they oppose not Zionism so much as the current state of Israel.
Saturday, October 4, 2014
Reflections on Yom Kippur (a poem)
Adonai
Set us free
From hatred, strife and jealousy.
Our petty lust
And rash desire
Quell the heart's passion fire.
Make us tremble in our seats
Not for your majesty
But for our humility
Write down in your book...
The transgressions made
The dept unpaid
Boss to worker
Wayward son to father
1 percent to 99
Occupier to Occupied
Grant us freedom, justice, mercy (and self-determination)
And let us say.... "Amen."
Set us free
From hatred, strife and jealousy.
Our petty lust
And rash desire
Quell the heart's passion fire.
Make us tremble in our seats
Not for your majesty
But for our humility
Write down in your book...
The transgressions made
The dept unpaid
Boss to worker
Wayward son to father
1 percent to 99
Occupier to Occupied
Grant us freedom, justice, mercy (and self-determination)
And let us say.... "Amen."
Thursday, September 25, 2014
Shanah Tovah: Reflections on a Rosh Hashanah Sermon
The Jewish New Year (in contrast to analagous versions of the holiday in many other cultures) is a time for reflection rather than celebration, the rabbis say. Not only is the day a "Yom Tov," (i.e. a "sacred day" on which Jewish Law prohibits working, driving or using most electronic implements) but the prayers repeatedly emphasize a cry for penitence for human sins, a demand that symbolically carries over into the afternoon ceremony of tashlich and the Yom Kippur holiday 10 days later. It is in this spirit that I seek to critically reflect on remarks made by Rabbi John Rosove during the Rosh Hashanah Schaharit service I attended this morning at Temple Israel of Hollywood.
Showing signs of both nervousness and distress as he began to speak, Rosove opened by expressing his desire to "talk about Israel," in light of the Gaza War.
This seemed to begin the sermon that I had been hoping to hear, given the qualms I have developed about Israel's occupation and politics of aggression. Knowing Rabbi Rosove's membership in the Liberal Zionist group, J Street, I was expecting at least some honest reckoning with the Israeli government's cavalier actions (not only towards Palestinian civilians but Israeli soldiers) in the latest round of violence in Gaza.
Sure enough, Rosove, began his speech with a brief paean to the "one-thousand Palestinian civilian dead" in Gaza. But just quickly as he threw out the baby, so went the bathwater: "there is no doubting either," Rabbi Rosove averred, "that Hamas is an anti-semitic organization that would murder every Jew in the world if it could."
Oy! One of the most alarmist Hasbara statements that I have heard (since when has Hamas murdered Jews overseas?), which is surprising since I have so many Likud-leaning friends. Rabbi Rosove followed up by noting that Hamas had a "plot" involving the tunnels, that if successful, would see thousands of militants popping outside "Kibbutz dining halls across Southern Israel...on this day" (i.e. Rosh Hashanah), repeating another trope of the Israeli foreign ministry. Never mind that, as Larry Derfner points out, the "tunnels" were never used by Hamas until Israel attacked (i.e. that the tunnels served a offensive rather than defensive purpose"). Learning of this news, said the Rabbi, turned him from an opponent of the war (for "strategic reasons") into a supporter: from that point on, I gradually began to block out the rabbi's predictable language.
At one moment, the rabbi began to digress from more predictable Hasbara to an attack against "those who use the bully pulpit to determine who (what) is pro-Israel," a not so thinly veiled reference to the Stand With Us crowded. But only a few minutes later, in discussing the painful "division" that had emerged within the American Jewish community, Rosove (while addressing the "hawkish" and "moderate Zionist" as brothers) demanded that those "liberal universalists" in the community who supported the BDS movement, do so as "individuals, not as Jews." So much for taking on the bullies, Rabbi.
As I listened, I could hardly believe that I was listening to a man considered one of the more liberal Rabbis in Los Angeles (and who at various times, in various capacities, has argued against the Occupation). On the one hand, I could see a generational perspective at work: coming of age in the wake of the Six-Day War, an episode in which Israel's survival seemed genuinely threatened, has carved a lasting (if not misleading) impression of Israel as the "Jewish" underdog. Furthermore, too many Jews-even those who position themselves as liberals, take the Israeli government's wartime propaganda as absolute truth rather than promotional material. Finally, since the year 2000, many "liberal zionists" (both in Israel and the Diaspora) have fallen for Ehud Barak's spurious mantra that Oslo failed due to a lack of a Palestinian "partner." As the years pass by and one misguided conflict flows into the next, these "disappointed" liberals too sadly entrench themselves in their hardnosed "realism." I thought this last war might have been a wake-up call for many, but rather I only see intensified bitterness, tribalism and misunderstanding.
Showing signs of both nervousness and distress as he began to speak, Rosove opened by expressing his desire to "talk about Israel," in light of the Gaza War.
This seemed to begin the sermon that I had been hoping to hear, given the qualms I have developed about Israel's occupation and politics of aggression. Knowing Rabbi Rosove's membership in the Liberal Zionist group, J Street, I was expecting at least some honest reckoning with the Israeli government's cavalier actions (not only towards Palestinian civilians but Israeli soldiers) in the latest round of violence in Gaza.
Sure enough, Rosove, began his speech with a brief paean to the "one-thousand Palestinian civilian dead" in Gaza. But just quickly as he threw out the baby, so went the bathwater: "there is no doubting either," Rabbi Rosove averred, "that Hamas is an anti-semitic organization that would murder every Jew in the world if it could."
Oy! One of the most alarmist Hasbara statements that I have heard (since when has Hamas murdered Jews overseas?), which is surprising since I have so many Likud-leaning friends. Rabbi Rosove followed up by noting that Hamas had a "plot" involving the tunnels, that if successful, would see thousands of militants popping outside "Kibbutz dining halls across Southern Israel...on this day" (i.e. Rosh Hashanah), repeating another trope of the Israeli foreign ministry. Never mind that, as Larry Derfner points out, the "tunnels" were never used by Hamas until Israel attacked (i.e. that the tunnels served a offensive rather than defensive purpose"). Learning of this news, said the Rabbi, turned him from an opponent of the war (for "strategic reasons") into a supporter: from that point on, I gradually began to block out the rabbi's predictable language.
At one moment, the rabbi began to digress from more predictable Hasbara to an attack against "those who use the bully pulpit to determine who (what) is pro-Israel," a not so thinly veiled reference to the Stand With Us crowded. But only a few minutes later, in discussing the painful "division" that had emerged within the American Jewish community, Rosove (while addressing the "hawkish" and "moderate Zionist" as brothers) demanded that those "liberal universalists" in the community who supported the BDS movement, do so as "individuals, not as Jews." So much for taking on the bullies, Rabbi.
As I listened, I could hardly believe that I was listening to a man considered one of the more liberal Rabbis in Los Angeles (and who at various times, in various capacities, has argued against the Occupation). On the one hand, I could see a generational perspective at work: coming of age in the wake of the Six-Day War, an episode in which Israel's survival seemed genuinely threatened, has carved a lasting (if not misleading) impression of Israel as the "Jewish" underdog. Furthermore, too many Jews-even those who position themselves as liberals, take the Israeli government's wartime propaganda as absolute truth rather than promotional material. Finally, since the year 2000, many "liberal zionists" (both in Israel and the Diaspora) have fallen for Ehud Barak's spurious mantra that Oslo failed due to a lack of a Palestinian "partner." As the years pass by and one misguided conflict flows into the next, these "disappointed" liberals too sadly entrench themselves in their hardnosed "realism." I thought this last war might have been a wake-up call for many, but rather I only see intensified bitterness, tribalism and misunderstanding.
Friday, September 12, 2014
In search of lost time: part II
Her face wrinkled as she spoke...
A smile.
Splotches of yellow and grey could be but faintly perceived
Beneath silver-tinged sheen stockings...
Her feet were crossed.
She reminisced...
The first child, now working for Goldman Sachs
flushed with a brownstone and Cadillac
but rarely more than an aseptic nod
of appreciation.
The second child won the Westinghouse Prize last year,
a recursive algorithm and a scholarship to Yale.
Always awake when it was dark and asleep when light out...
Boy, that Circadian Rhythm...!
And as for the husband...
The one who spends twelve hours at work each day....
Two hours eating before the telly
The rest of the time yelling "Shut the f*ck up, I need to sleep!"
The plane could be felt dipping slightly to the right, as to indicate a change in direction
From the window, the patchwork greenery of the Great Plains could be seen giving way to the rogue red barreness of the Llano Estacado.
"Have you given thought of parachuting from this plane...," he asked, gesturing towards a 1,000-foot canyon. "Just one leap and you're in paradise..."
As he spoke, he recognized from the corner of his eye, the musical notes dancing across her forearm.
"Nah, I prefer trees, she said.
SHe leaned over, as if to share in a grasp of the view, nevertheless...
She put her hand around his arm
She began to stroke
And she sighed...
A smile.
Splotches of yellow and grey could be but faintly perceived
Beneath silver-tinged sheen stockings...
Her feet were crossed.
She reminisced...
The first child, now working for Goldman Sachs
flushed with a brownstone and Cadillac
but rarely more than an aseptic nod
of appreciation.
The second child won the Westinghouse Prize last year,
a recursive algorithm and a scholarship to Yale.
Always awake when it was dark and asleep when light out...
Boy, that Circadian Rhythm...!
And as for the husband...
The one who spends twelve hours at work each day....
Two hours eating before the telly
The rest of the time yelling "Shut the f*ck up, I need to sleep!"
The plane could be felt dipping slightly to the right, as to indicate a change in direction
From the window, the patchwork greenery of the Great Plains could be seen giving way to the rogue red barreness of the Llano Estacado.
"Have you given thought of parachuting from this plane...," he asked, gesturing towards a 1,000-foot canyon. "Just one leap and you're in paradise..."
As he spoke, he recognized from the corner of his eye, the musical notes dancing across her forearm.
"Nah, I prefer trees, she said.
SHe leaned over, as if to share in a grasp of the view, nevertheless...
She put her hand around his arm
She began to stroke
And she sighed...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)