[Newspoetry] america the beautiful (fwd)

[William]

Here's a fresh newspoem from Raymond Federman.

Spineless Books
http://spinelessbooks.com
Box 515 Urbana Illinois 61803
Phone: 217.337.6237
Fax: 217.344.0059

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 9 Sep 2002 14:08:17 EDT
To: william at spinelessbooks.com
Subject: america the beautiful

hey are you still existing

your silence troubles me

hey look at this reflection I had on what it means to live in america

I would like this to be published in unknown immediately - its current news 

>>>>>

What's with the war-mongering in america?   My French friend asks.

Look, when the dumb American Republicans elected a cowboy from Texas, they 
knew what to expect.  A shoot out.

American politics imitates Hollywood make-believe politics, so it's 
inevitable that there should be a shoot out during the time the cowboy from 
Texas becomes military chief of America,

History shows it.  America loves a fight.  So It's either Americans against 
Americans [les sudistes contre les nordistes, les blancs contre les rouges, 
les rouges contre les blancs, les blancs contre les noirs, les puritans 
contre tous les autres] or else it's America against the world, or America 
against the other planets in the solar system, America against the entire 
Universe.   A Texas Cowboy Presidents take on anybody and anything.  They 
have guts.

That's how it is in America, and why it's fun to live here as an incurable 
foreigner.  An outsider-insider.   It's like watching a movie and being in it 
at the same time.  It's really funny.  

If I was writing this in French I would say, C'est fendant.  Perfect word to 
describe the situation, because fendant means to split, like spliting a piece 
of wood with an axe.  It means to cut in half,  to separate,  to be in and 
out at the same time,  to be a spectator as well as a performer who laugh at 
the same time, because fendant in French slang really mean to laugh, to have 
a good laugh, to explode in fourire.  

So, one could say  to be or not to be -- literally -- that's how I am in 
America.  Present & absent at the same time at the great comedy that American 
reality has become.

Once upon a time it was tragic to live in America.  Now it has become 
comical.  But the comedy  makes life almost bearable, especially since there 
is no end to this great opera.  Yes a tragicomic opera because now in America 
there is music everywhere with the action.

In a few days, America is going to celebrate -- to commemorate -- the first 
aniversay of its only defeat on its own soil by an enemy.  Over 3000 
casualties on 9/11, as that infamous day is called.  

In a few days, America will become a giant flag of stars and stripes, and it 
will be full of music -- bombastic songs of love and respect and admiration 
and devotion and pride for america.  America  the land of the free and the 
fanatics, America the land where one delusions are spent in advance, America 
the land of misrepresentation where a cowboy can pass for a president.

And now,  as a consequence the 9/11 catastrophe, America is in the process of 
cleaning the world of all those who do not believe in America 

On 9/11, I think  I'll go play a round of golf, and forget that I am in 
America .... Or get Stoned.