Stewart Home (London, UK): Mini-Manifesto

I've had some really good times in the US, but I don't want to go there anymore (or at least not until there is at the very least some regime change). I have loads of American friends and I'd love to go visit them, but right now I can't. I know there is a huge difference between Americans and the US government. Most Americans I know (whether from north, south or central America) oppose the world wide terror operations of the Bush administration. We're not just talking about invasions and occupations, but kidnappings, torture, detentions and executions. The American government is the largest and easily the most dangerous terrorist organization in the world, and one of only a few (the British government is another) with access to weapons of mass destruction. There aren't many places in the world I wouldn't visit, but the idea of going to the USA right now really frightens me. So seeing people organize against war and terror in the US (that is, against the Bush government and its policies) is important to me: and I am seeing that on the web and elsewhere. So all I really wanted to say to those doing this is “keep on keeping on”, because the world needs a real movement against terror. Terrorism is always elitist and “vanguardist”. Bush and bin Laden need each but we don't need either of them or what they stand for. Only non-hierarchical mass movements can make this world a better place. We need to rediscover our humanity together. And in opposing terrorism we need to focus on the biggest and most dangerous terrorists: George W. Bush, Tony Blair and their cronies.

Jesus Erminy (Venezuela, S.A.): Three "Sculptures" (curated by Diana Magallon)

“My proposal promotes the creation of an ecological and humanistic conscience. I want to transmit my learning that we are all “covered” by a creative energy, & any change influences everyone. For that reason we must take care of our surroundings.
I work with trash material which I recycle, making the materials “reborn” trough a transformation that gives life. I hope to create incentives for people to participate in necessary, joint efforts to take care and protect our planet. I have three main interests: Zoomorphic figurative assembly, Abstract conceptual art, Human Relations.”

Tammy Armstrong (Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada): Four Poems

AFFAIR WITH MY PARTNER AFTER SPRING HAIRCUT/SHAVE

This begins my affair:
this new face in our bed.

Fastidiousness spatchcocked
into shiftless lust
in a basement tavern
where the base boys
dance with undergrads
and we drink with blind date enthusiasm.

Treat me proverbial,
chalky with wine and newness,
bringing it all to bed
while he’s away on a road trip.

This perennial hook-up
leaves alarm clocks,
toothbrush rituals in the margins.
Back story:
a much younger you,
a .12 gauge, a chipmunk.
The words don’t matter at last call.

Take me home in the van—
a box of finishing nails
chattering
in the back,
a weeks worth of Globe and Mails
nested on the passenger seat.

If they ask, tell them.
Yes, we left the Chevron,
near the Tannery
around three—
a new pack of smokes
paid for from an ambitious wallet.
Clearly, single before tonight.

CALAMARI AND INK

We needed a memory
for a meal no one could finish.
Hooked index fingers into bowls of black—
cursive graffiti
along the dining room table.

Not contained on sponge pads
cover charge bar stamps
the ink pooled cabaret make-up.
Not all offerings from the ocean are grand.

Squid like a boxed ear
swollen, cut
re-shaped into a gift
an adjustable ring from a small town carnival
from a lover who doesn’t know me well.
I’d marry if asked.

But these rings bloat the rice indigo
marring late night calligraphy
when we can’t see how
we’ve outstayed another welcome.

REPARATIONS

We dressed too early for the funeral:
at the card table, third pot of coffee
killing time
with button talk,
how stitches never match eyelets
and you as small boy
taught in French how to repair a torn knee . . .

Thick fingered, you thread a needle
tighten each button on the suit jacket
tailored in Thailand
asking if the weave
is worn too shiny
from months in your backpack.

Hours from now I’ll gather the suit
from the kitchen tiles—
stripped as though in flames.
I’ll smooth the shoulder pads
to the wooden hanger
align the buttons
while you stand, near naked
in the living room
Standard Muffler sign
our only light.

IRIS UNFOLDED

What to say except
you unfolded backwards
bled out on the bathroom tiles.

The matador’s thorned banderilla
into your temple:
pale shards
of pre-tempered windshield
the nurse combed from your scalp
forty years before.

Carnations tossed at odd angles
onto your wife’s voice
hovering in the bathroom
above the uneven grid of rumour.

You wanted to tell her
near the Tyvek wrapped garage
you’d shot a groundhog that morning
hid the blood soil
from the kids
beneath a scout tent.

Where to go
but toward a red cape
a matador standing on his shadow—
the unsuspected migraine
that thrusts your history
into a helix
Saturday Post obituary.

Mini Q & A: Dr. Noam Chomsky (Boston, USA) & Adam Fieled (Philly, USA)

AF: By what rhetorical strategy could the Democratic Party regain control of the House & Congress this fall, do you think? Is there a kind of rhetoric that could counteract the current administration? What kind of rhetorical dialect does a disgruntled populace want to hear?

NC: I'm not a great fan of effective rhetoric. In fact I try very hard to keep away from it myself, and think others should too. People should be persuaded by facts and ideas, not charisma or flourishes. My feeling is that if the Democrats want to win, instead of serve pretty much the same centers of power as the Republicans, they should advance the interests of the majority of the population. We have extensive information about popular attitudes and beliefs, and they show that on a host of major issues, both political parties are well to the right of the population. Have written about that often, recently in a book called Failed States , which reviews a lot of the evidence.