Poetry for Men
Microplastics are to men what Norway is to whales
#MeToo movement has been to men what ICC has been to Benjamin Netanyahu
Vatican has been to men what Vatican has been to priests
Islam has been to men what oil fields have been to comedy
Pop culture has been to men what Sears Catalog has been to pop culture
Justice has been to men what justice has been to Germany what Germany has been to literature what Germany has been to genocide
I think about Ilya Ehrenburg’s warning about the final victory of fascism
His grave warnings to men are what his idealisms have been to erudite Harvard employees focused on “Major Gifts” at the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies
The fuckers call Ehrenburg “controversial”
The fuckers called Arendt “controversial” too
I think of Joseph Stalin being a man sending the 15 year old son of Andrey Platonov to Siberian gulags
Hitler made a fool of Stalin and Stalin made everyone around him cry and now the UC Berkeley president sent your name–a holy name you chose for yourself after deciding to not kill yourself–to the IDF reserve officers stationed at the White House
You weren’t the only name
You are one of 160, one of 6 million, one of 20 million, one of 67,000 & counting
Man is to Man what Treblinka is to train stations, what Robert McNamara to rice farmer
Geography of man is scattered frozen pieces of charred bodies along Elbe River cutting through Dresden to Gaza’s Al-Basma IVF Centre
I think of Chemistry and all I see are lipstick marks on his armpits
I left them there because I’m attracted to disaster & I want to warn
Fascism is to man what power is to Vatican
Meaning is to man what man is to representations of limit experiences in the 20th century
Man is to poetry Ike to Tina
What I am to now
Rent Increase 2025
Dear Nina,
Our relationship hinges on goodwill, which is why I am asking you to pay me more whenever I ask you and because you get to look at my art every morning when you leave your bedroom to make coffee and hear Henrique’s moaning in the bathroom next to the laundry
Dear Laura,
Per a SF Tenant’s Union counselor, who is notably an old, raspy-voiced, lanky and hot lady in starched cowboy jeans, I don’t have to do anything unless I have a written notice of the rent increase from you or the landlord.
Dear Nina,
I am not comfortable providing you with a written notice of rent increase because I am perennially transparent and an incremental but self-righteous price gouger at that! Don’t you like my print art hanging out over the toilet in the hallway’s bathroom? Don’t you like the 10 square feet blurry oil on canvas of me and my friends next to a camper van hanging out on the other side of your bedroom’s wall? Abbi does not like it which makes it more interesting for you, right? wink wink
Dear Laura,
I am not an anti-Autistic or anti-Semite tenant in this household. I am just a food stamp receiver. That is to say if you don’t provide me with a written notice I would have to suck some cocks in some cars in Bayview or on Cesar Chavez dangerously close to my fave nanny reader farmer‘s apartment to cover the rent increase that you want! Is that what queer white feminism asks for on a random winter-y July day in 2025 during the reign of our most nepo mayor Daniel Lurie?
Dear Nina,
Moving forward, exclude me from these emails and settle this issue with your roommates or there will be late penalty fees. I don’t know Mayor Lurie, however my art hangs in the conference room of his non-profit, Creating Great and Everlasting Positions for Families in Pacific Heights and Beyond.
Dear Laura,
Any late penalty fee needs to be in writing per the Rent Board and I hope you don’t ask me to forge any document because I am not a Polish Jew in hiding in the basement of our sister’s house right outside of Warsaw circa Summer 1942.
Dear Nina,
I need you to move the fuck out or I will hang some more of my art in your bedroom and that’s it. Either that or I will let the lease fall.
Dear Laura,
You make $1000 per month per my estimate. Why would you let the lease fall?!!!
