CAUTIONARY TALE V—RACIST WEATHER
The humidity is rolling over Detroit
as the clouds unbroken scud past
this place of once needed greatness.
The barometric pressure changes
have come and gone so fast
that most people don’t see
the fog rising from the damp streets.
I don’t see fog either.
I see the specters of all them
who ever this way passed.
Them who lived and worked,
sent their kids to Catholic school
because they could afford it and
it was better than the closest public school.
Odd how the spectral images are all opaque white
just like them that went
to the Catholic school when it was still open.
It is similar to the sewer across the street that refuses to
drain.
Black people rise like fog on the damp street and everything
that could dissipate the rising specters, stops working or
refuses to stay open right when it is most needed.
Oddly enough the side of the street
where the sewer is no longer working has no white people
living on it
the side where the sewer drains has me.
When the last white student graduated from the Catholic
school
that was the year it closed. No one is comfortable talking
about race relations but how come the humidity is the same
regardless of where you live in Detroit but the clouds above
my side of the street have broken up but…
it is humid, no matter
where you are in Detroit.
© M Durfee
5/29/13
CAUTIONARY TALE VI—IT’S
THE MONEY STUPID
Detroit has been taken over.
The government of the state
has moved in and moved out
the law given power
of all of the elected officials
and installed one single man
as lawmaker,
leader,,
judge,
jury,
executioner.
The white governor thought it would be more acceptable
The white governor thought it would be more acceptable
to the vastly majority black population who fall under his
whip;
if the master’s hand was black too.
It was a useless worry though,
nothing has changed
no one, but a few,
even knows he is here
running everything.
I would think that is odd
I would think that is odd
but this is Detroit.
No one has really been running things
here for twenty one years.
This all powerful man behind the curtain
has publically stated
he wants no contact with Detroit’s citizens.
Instead he meets daily with White millionaires.
I have to admit he knows his business.
He came from outside of Michigan,
saw right away Detroit was insolvent and
who pulled the strings that the governor danced on.
Oddly enough if the governor would put on black face
he’d be just like
them who don’t know who Kevyn Orr is
and at a pay rate of $15,300 a month
he only needs to meet with his own kind.
I wonder if they gave Kevyn
a temporary membership to their country club?
© M Durfee
5/29/13
no one is comfortable talking about it, but the humidity (the climate) doesnt change either..doesnt want contact with the citizens but meets with the money...oh how fast we fall back to our royal roots...all hail the king...
ReplyDeleteAnd therein lies the problem Brian, no one wants to talk about it but talking about the disgusting traits in humanity allows us to deal with them and get rid of it, if we rid ourselves of one then we can rid ourselves of two and three and...
DeleteWe talk so much of democracy and hear so much of it, but where is the evidence it exists? Enjoyed these poems, Mark, though they make you realize how truly disjointed our governing bodies are.
ReplyDeleteTalon, even though we live in a republic there should be some democracy in them we put in positions of power but rather than work for the benefit of the republic they work HARD for them who only have one vote but a cruise ship sized bucket full of cash. If we all stood up to them we elect and them who own the elected by refusing to spend on anything that is not absolutely necessary...they may actually get the point that 99% of votes is greater than 1% of votes backed by tons of increasingly worthless wealth of their kind.
Deletethis all sounds like the worse of the worse. poor detroit. you know i've worked in a mini detroit (springfield mass) and over the years i've seen the worse, but sometimes the best too. communities get screwed and beaten down but i've noticed certain people don't give up. three years ago the mayor of springfield planted trees and shrubs all along state street and mason square. i thought it to be such a misguided waste. but i don't feel that way anymore. the blooms speak to growth, in a certain way.
ReplyDeletei hope detroit falls on the right side of right, somehow.
love
kj
kj I read about the receivership of Springfield and the comparison to what Detroit is about to go through is next to nil. This one man government who dances on the governors string who dances on the string of the oligarchs (he is one himself) is just setting the stage, preparing us for the great sell off. The first to go will be an attempt at selling off the 122 year old art collection of the 7th largest art museum in the world, now he has the media starting to get us used to the idea of what else could be sold and for how much. Basically everything, every artifact that makes Detroit Detroit.
DeleteOur citizen owned art collection in just the one museum is 66,000 pieces. But we have prototype cars that were given to the city worth a million + each and public parks that sit right on the river. Hell the richest are right now gobbling up Downtown property at cut rate prices and getting tax abatement's and credits to do it.
After that he'll talk about revenue streams from those of us who own property here. I only pay 70 mils right now that can be bumped up with the slash of a pen to 99.
They have cordoned the city into two different areas one is getting all of the services and money put into it, the rest is left to fend for itself and is a slum. Guess which of the 140 sq miles most of the people live?
A lot of spectres like that all over.
ReplyDeleteYep sure are, this is where they emanate from to spread over the rest of the nation. If this takeover doesn't get overturned in the next 30 days it will be tried in every red state that has a city with a minority population and a budget shortfall.
DeleteWe tried Democracy. It didn't work. But neither does Plutocracy so what's next?
ReplyDeleteOligarchy and mass decimation of population so they will not have to support them they stole everything from.
DeleteRight on, man.
ReplyDeleteReminds me of that Beatles' line, "There's a fog above the DIA."
Yep and it is an art eating fog Erik.
DeleteI wonder if we will see a lot of endings before this generation is dead and gone. It seems more and more of those things that we knew are coming to a conclusion.
ReplyDeleteMore and more is coming to an end Syd. when civility died that was the last barrier stopping barbarism. I won't live long nough to see what comes fully into it's place.
DeleteMakes me wonder what kind of world awaits my kids when they hit my age...and let's not even talk about grandkids. Great poems, my friend...thought-provokers, as usual.
ReplyDeleteIly get your kids into the best colleg you can afford with as few loans as possible. Get them both started right now looking for scholarships and anything else that they do not have to pay back and insist that they go into one of the sciences that has to do with digital world.
DeleteThe un and undereducated are doomed as social programs and safety nets are done away with by the neo cons who only care for their own wealth empire.
Odd that the man they would select would be black.
ReplyDeleteMr. Orr has his work cut out for him.
Best of luck . . .
The white governor is rich. But more importantly so is Orr, but the governor is a coward and Orr has no horse in the race. he can fail 9which is his instruction from the governor) sell off all he can, cut all he can pay as much as he can to the bondholders who bought junk bonds backed by the states credit rating and then send the carcass to chapter 9 and let the judge do the dirtiest work of halting employee health care and pensions.
DeleteIt's pretty humid o ER here too.....in more ways than one.
ReplyDeleteCandace to one degree or another no large municipality or pension fund saw the crash of '08 coming. It was so well hidden that them who were deepest involved Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac didn't even see it coming. We who are alive today and adults have witnessed the largest swindle of all time and the greatest upward transfer of wealth that has ever happened.
DeleteI can't help but believe this was planned long ago when they first started shifting people out of defined pension plans and into first IRA's then 401(k)just to take the money that would have been put in pensions into Wall Street so they would have that money to move around with high risk investments and large trade fees. The market has now recovered but no one I know has a 401 that is back to it's '07 level.
I have to admit now that I understand what Goldman Sachs and the rest did it was slick as hell and not a one of them got prosecuted because they had their people in place in the FEd and Treasury, the SEc and every other regulatory body. if they managed war the way they manipulated the market it would be over now but then that would cut into profits so it would be endless...which makes me wonder when Obama starts to seriously rattle the saber towards Iran or N Korea.
Sequester took 40 billion out of defense and you know they are going to have to get that money back.
I meant to say over
ReplyDelete