The Laws of the Wall

by Elliot Bougis (14.2.08)

[This is only a rough draft, and not complete. I thought of most of it as I drove to work today. Better than cursing my fellow charioteers, I'd say.]

Law
is a wall
Up which none may crawl
But down from which all may fall
Law is a shawl
Which none may sweep aside
But which all may sleep inside
Law is it that keeps men apart
in their smirks
or keeps them together
in their smiles
Law is the mantle of clouds
and thunder
that hangs over all
A shawl of clouds
intangible and impenetrable
a pall, over all,
a call, over all
But over the walls of law
and over the laws of the shawl
there is a face
from whose brow there hangs a canopy
bestriding itself foursquare,
like yon tree
Within the space of the canopy
Dwells a face
supreme among our race
And from that face
a word
is spoken
to form the womb of grace
Grace
for our race
It is a face that shines
over all
An awl
that pierces and binds
all that unwinds or falls
A face that speaks
a call, for all
or a pall, if we reject the call
And, lo, once that face
was wrapped inside the shawl
spun by the claws of law
And swept away
Held inside the walls
built by the house of law
Buried clean and unseen
under a shawl of subhuman smirks,
behind a wall of superhuman smiles
… …

On making friends…

Make friends? A social fallacy. For it is friends that make us.

–– Elliam Fakespeare

Love to Me

[This is a song that popped in my head the morning of 13 Feb. I'd like to try learning how to use my Macbook Garage Band software to work it up into a real song. It plays in my head, but that doesn't do much for the crowd.

Beats are, amateurishly, indicated by + signs, and the melody should be something akin to Green Day's middle-range rock. One might imagine an emo love song based on AC/DC's "Dirty Deeds". If one dared to imagine. I would also like to imagine it as sounding like a Fastball or Spoon track or a tune by The Postal Service. Until I get Garage Band under my belt, it's just an a cappella ballad by yours truly. Until I go platinum, you can just enjoy it as a poem.]

Love + +
to them + +
is a past + + +
shattered under dung + + + +
Love + +
to them + +
is a future + + +
unspoken on their tongue + + + +
But love + +
to me + +
is nothing + +
without you in my life + +
Love + +
to them + +
is a shadow + +
cast by others' light + + +
Love + +
to them + +
is a beacon + +
unblinking in the night + +
But love + +
to me + +
is nothing + +
without you in my life + + + +
is nothing +
without you in my life + + + +
L0ve +
is a vacuum + +
or loVe + +
is a victory + +
depending where you touch it +
on the line +
of its life + + + +
Yes, love + +
for me + +
is a dream + +
which I can never live unless I sleep +
in your arms + + + +
which I can never live unless I sleep +
in your arms + + + +
in your arms + + + +
BRIDGE BRIDGE BRIDGE BRIDGE BRIDGE
Love + +
to them + +
is a bridge + + +
that looks best when it burns + + + +
Love + +
to them + +
is a current + + +
that frees us from what we earn + + + +
But love + +
to me + +
is nothing + +
without you in my life + + +
Love + +
to them + +
is a corpse + + +
that moves most as it hardens + + + +
Love + +
to them + +
is a womb + + +
that bears the means of pardon + + + +
But love + +
to me + +
is nothing + +
without you in my life + + + +
without you in my life + + + +
L0ve + +
is a loss + +
or loVe + + +
is advance + +
depending how you read it +
on the length of its line + + + +
Yes, love + +
for me + +
is a dream + +
which I can never live unless I sleep +
in your arms + + + +
which I can never live unless I sleep +
in your arms + + + +

One more among not enough…

…who, like myself, have decided to boycott the Beijing Shamlympics: Steven Spielberg.

Spielberg boycotts Beijing Olympics (13 Feb 08, theage.com.au)

US film maker Steven Spielberg said he was abandoning his artistic role in the Beijing Olympics, accusing China of not doing enough to press its ally Sudan to end devastating violence in Darfur.

"I have decided to formally announce the end of my involvement as one of the overseas artistic advisers to the opening and closing ceremonies of the Beijing Olympic Games," Spielberg said in a statement.

In conjunction with this article, one should read of Hu Jia, a political dissident, husband and father, who was recently seized from his house, whereupon his wife and infant daughter were placed under house arrest.

Dissident’s Arrest Hints at Olympic Crackdown
By JIM YARDLEY
Published: January 30, 2008 (NYT)

Mr. Hu, 34, and his wife, Zeng Jinyan, are human rights advocates who spent much of 2006 restricted to their apartment in a complex with the unlikely name of Bo Bo Freedom City. She blogged about life under detention, while he videotaped a documentary titled “Prisoner in Freedom City.” Their surreal existence seemed to reflect an official uncertainty about how, and whether, to shut them up.

That ended on Dec. 27. Mr. Hu was dragged away on charges of subverting state power while Ms. Zeng was bathing their newborn daughter, Qianci. Telephone and Internet connections to the apartment were severed. Mother and daughter are now under house arrest. Qianci, barely 2 months old, is probably the youngest political prisoner in China.

TV is already scandalous enough; surely we can all support watching something more banal and less grotesque than the world celebrating its human solidarity in sport in the capital of a country that consistently violates human dignity. My prayer is that, whilst my eyes are off it, Beijing will be changed for good due to both the intense, subterranean spiritual energy building in China and the inescapable scrutiny it will draw during the Olympics.

Few things…

Few things are more haunting than an unloved lover. Few things are more horrendous than an unloving beloved.

The ghost that is an unloved lover is but the victim in the unwilling sights of the unloving beloved.

They strive to embrace and exorcise each other turn after turn in the hallways of memory. But to no avail. For every incantation of healing is at once a hex perpetuating the ghost's harrowing imprisonment in its own desires.

A castle of a life is thus haunted by the very victim seeking restitution at the hands of the killer fighting to ease the ghost's pain.

I hope to work this concept into a short screenplay. I should like to call it "Few Things".

Sometimes sometimes…

ERNIUS: I'm having my students write letters to a politician in their region.

BERTUS: As in their state or city?

ERNIUS: Any contiguous state. To a senator. They have to pick one issue we've discussed and ask the senator to do something about it.

BERTUS: Are they mad as hell and not going to take it anymore?

ERNIUS: I just want them to learn about advocacy. Passivity is the pillow ignorance sleeps on. Or maybe vice versa.

BERTUS: About that I don't know and don't care.

ERNIUS: Cute. But work on your delivery.

BERTUS: Well, I give you this: you are an inspiring teacher.

ERNIUS: Perhaps, sometimes.

BERTUS: Well, sometimes sometimes is enough.