Eden Revisited

I think its time to revise the loss of innocence myth.
The serpent was Steve Jobs.
The Apple was an I Phone.

The Origin of the Name Sowebo

The Origin of the Name Sowebo

It was June of 1985. I was sitting at the butcher block table in the dining room of my apartment at 1316 Hollins Street in Southwest Baltimore. The late spring sunshine was pouring through the tall south facing front windows. I was drinking a cup of light coffee and reading the New York Times (back then an ordinary person could afford to buy it).  There was an article about the unrest in South Africa around the June 16^th anniversary of the Soweto uprising. I had always thought Soweto was an African, Zulu or Bantu name for the city. From the “Times” article I learned that the apartheid government of South Africa had actually in vented the name Soweto. It was an acronym for South West Townships. The article stated that the designation had been given to denigrate the area and deny the residents, many refugees from land seizures, a native name to identify with  I was shockedk that my assumption about the name being African was so, so wrong.  I dropped the paper and sat back in my chair. One of my primary reasons for moving to this neighborhood in Baltimore was to build an integrated artistic community around the café I had opened. All my beliefs and feeling were antithetical to apartheid.  A block to the north of where I sat ran West Baltimore Street, the epicenter of the 1968 Martin Luther King assassination riot in Baltimore. I wanted to prove that art could unite the racially divided neighborhood into a thriving community, a battle spiritually linked to the one being  fought at that moment in Soweto. These communities and the struggle were linked in my mind. Click. SouthWest Townships = SoWeTo — SOthWEst  BaltimOre  = Sowebo. “Sowebo, Sowebo the name is Sowebo!” In time the name caught on. Now that is all that remains of my dreams.

New Spires

New Spires

Up spring loud, white satanic mills,

Upon our rolling verdant hills.

Eagles lie broken on the ground,

But GREEN redemption has been found.

THE STORY OF THE SCAPEGOATS

Though they hated and despised them, everyone loved having the scapegoats around. They were so handy to take people’s minds off the real causes of their troubles. Point to the scapegoats and then rob them, beat them, spit on them, behead them, round them up, corral them, ship them, gas them, then burn them up in the ovens. Stupid scapegoats didn’t even use their horns

to protect themselves.
Some of the scapegoats fled the hunting grounds and moved back to the harsh desert of their origin. There was a very long dark cold night. The scapegoats huddled together and slept. Then the bright desert sun rose and they awoke. But when the scapegoats awoke they were transformed. What had once been a pathetic herd of trembling goats had been changed into a proud pride of lions and lionesses. The bullying bearded goatherds saw the transformation but did not believe.
“ They are still the lowly scapegoats of old that our Book says we are destined to Lord over till the day we get to slaughter them all. But if they have become cats, we will kill them by driving them into the sea, where they will drown, since cats cannot swim.”
From near and far the bearded goatherds gathered riding on borrowed war beasts bearing borrowed weapons and numbering 12 for every one of the transformed scapegoat they attacked with the bloated confidence of born bullies. And the lions, their sharp claws shining in the desert sun tore the bullies into bloody ribbons and drove them from the pastures they had stolen long, long ago. The bearded goatherds have hated the lions, more than they hated the scapegoats, ever since. The devious deluded goatherds think they will one day defeat the lions. The lions laugh.
In a hidden den deep below the desert death's deadly jewels glow. Above the trove is written: "WE WILL NOT GO TO THE OVENS ALONE AGAIN!"
Ted Getzel

BALLAD OF THE THIN MAN

High above what was Freedom’s land

The Thin Man rules

Kill list in hand.

Info culture coalesced

In Thin Man’s fingers firmly pressed

If we let him shape our views

All he will win

We’ll surely lose

Super computers nerves of light

Probe our privacy day and night

WHILE

Ivy League pinheads think things through

And tell the Thin Man what to do.

Well paid technicians smile and say,

“We’ve built a brand new Drone today.

It stays aloft for thirty days

And deals out death in many ways,

Missiles, bombs, laser and chain gun

In service of the great THIN ONE!

Hipsters’ Heroes Hymn For Steve and Barack

(Thank you Aldous Huxley)

Holy hook up Jobs and joy

Every woman has  her boy

Every boy must know his place

And keep a smile on his face

Holy hook up Jobs and joy

Guys are girls and girls are boys

Modern is as modern does

It will never be the way it was!

Jobs we are millions make us one

Like melting memes within a twilight zone

Oh let us now together run

Swift as well made apps on your phone

Then we will feel when the great Obama comes.

We feel the fluids flex and flow until we fly

Melting in the music of the jungle drums,

We are his and will be his until we die.

Modern is as modern does

It will never be the way it was!