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Saturday, December 24, 2005

conversations that infuriate: two

"So I hear you're a poet?"

"Yup."

"But how do you pay your bills?"

"Mostly online. There's a couple I still do by post, which is a pain, but I can use my credit card for them, which earns me airmiles. How do you pay yours?"

Why do people think it's OK to interrogate you about your financial life if you're an artist? Does anyone quiz doctors about their credit card debt? Software engineers about their debt/equity ratio? Lawyers and investment bankers about the last time they felt real joy course through their bodies? Would it be OK for me to say to someone I've just met, when they tell me their occupation: "But how many hours of your life did you sell for that car you drive?"

2 Comments:

Blogger Wild Boar said...

dr. death I presume?
part 1 response

doctors may have the right to interrogate Poets—
though beware doctor, doctor
o’ good doctor

Poets inscribe healing
You prescribe drugs

(I think it’s called “dealing”)
and don’t forget…

Poems incite feelings
taking us from pain
silvery scalpels
white smocks
stethoscopes
who’s to blame
for minds insane
good doctor’s pockets
full of drugs

(also known as “white collar thugs”)
and let's not forget…

Poets march with pens for healing
PhDs champion the FDA’s dealings
did you check the carcinogen levels for THOSE—children?
or speak of what a lack of nutrition does to GPAs for
THOSE—children?

Who’s to blame
Have you no shame?

Or does only a silver slice of society get to doze snugly in white sheets after your daily doses?

a minority society where your are vaunted sleep well do you while deprived children are haunted

Disquieted by this, poets come closer to the world you have deliberately detached from

Hidden inside black Porsche Turbo
dashing through you assume
with pedal to the metal
“it’s their problem…”
in shanty town
dr. death I presume?

for this you are never criticized, only placebo pharmaceutical IPOs
are publicized

Poets have the right to interrogate doctors, also—

“Do tell us good doctor…”

”Were the two-decades of studies to appease your parents, or you?”

“And can you tell us without a fidgety lip, from the bottom of your heart—
at 18 your mission was to mend the world, immersed in books
sanctioned by, Pfizer…”

Would it be a typecast to put all doctors in the same gurney, or at least the majority from the minority class, falling under the double-PhM category:

Pfizer’s hoary Mission / a doctor’s duty:
We will become the world's most valued company to [EXTREMELY WEALTHY ONLY] patients, customers, colleagues, investors, business partners, and the [EXTREMELY POSH ONLY] communities where we work and live.

Pfizer’s hoary Purpose / a doctor’s obligation:
We dedicate ourselves to humanity's quest for longer, healthier, happier lives [SO LONG AS THEY ARE AWFULLY RICH] through innovation in pharmaceutical, consumer, and animal health products [TORTURED ANIMALS FOR BIPRODUCTS THAT IS]

Can you dear doctor, tell us with a straight face that your dreams and desires as a child were to study the role of bile acids in digestion?

If not, I have a cure for you…

Poems are good medicine
Good for the dealing
Poets enrich lives
Especially the ones you’re stealing

In full support of lessening the divide between poets
and doctors, artists and lawyers / attorneys / etc.,
and narrowing the gap between truth and the cure
for cancer, aids, and federal labels?

It really makes me wonder, if you can’t come up with half a cure for these, then why are you being rewarded?

musings of a wild pig poet,
Boar

Providers to this verse:
Pfizer - http://www.pfizer.com/pfizer/are/mn_about_mission.jsp

12/26/2005 11:55 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Dear Shailja and Boar,

Between Synapses and Sudoku, I have neither the mathematical inclination or coordination of cellular activities within me to understand. Had to look those
words up, and after doing so twice I realized—hey you’re the charted one
here—you figure it out!

There’s lots of good stuff on your blog to respond to, however I don’t want to
come across as a brownnosing blogster, bore =) bore not boar

If Boar would read his ProLovePfizerNot Poem aloud at one of those grand Moscone Center “rich doctors and new pharmaceuticals” conventions—then, and only then would I love his phizer-poet poem, too! I’m not sure if it’s worth his being arrested and charged for civil disobedience =) but maybe

One last question for boar: what habitat are you from, and your ancestors?

Shailja, you’ve been a great influence on him I’m impressed

Best wishes to both of you for the new year…

12/26/2005 2:40 PM  

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