Poem by Brian Kim Stefans

As Capital


As capital
mansplains the syzygy


first the right
paw, then


the left, into
the pit


of the empty
[insert name of


international finance
institution


here], we bask
in something like


freshness,
largely discursive


with the exception
of riots,


cops and ISIS.
And we must love


two horizons,
neither “represented"


by people but an
idol


of absence,
extolling the plateaus


of control and liberty,
damage and health,


boredom and esprit.
One could be


a house
and still understand


the partisan anger
of something like classes


and something
like hope


resilient in the compromise
of barely being


human.
Atoms


swerve
and blossom into laces


of comfort
ensconced


in impressive shapes
assured that recursion


always implies structure,
meaning:


the atom is fixed
in an imitation future


the eternal found
in a repeatable function


even as the party
dies.


By which I mean ideology
offers a counter


to the banal,
grants a plot 


to a life merely moments.  
One could 


be
a mere commodity


and trace the way
vacancy begets anger


and sacrifice of the few
truly human virtues:


empathy, faith, 
and love.


This isn’t new
and has its promise.


A god
doing a rhythmic trick


to get you into
his church:


a go
at the golden


ring inspires
a greater aspiration:


a code
emerges that unites


and offers
a family:


to be penitent
clears the eyes


of values
in things:


a history
shows poetry


and a language to
be used


by the aspirant
to transcend


mere sport
of the spiritual:


a pope
of any flavor


authors the manifesto
in time:


flavors are discovered
for the unique


cuisine of the cult
grown from sand:


the feds
step in


to suppress it
and find empty seats


as does
the television crew


— this is an homage
to Malcom X,


whatever you believe in.
No happy medium.


No parties to abhor
just the fact


of imminent confusion,
likely, recursion


into elegant failure.

Brian Kim Stefans' books of poetry include "Viva Miscegenation”: New Writing (MakeNow Books, 2013), Kluge: A Meditation and other works (Roof Books, 2007), What Is Said to the Poet Concerning Flowers (Factory School, 2006), Angry Penguins (Harry Tankoos Books, 2000), Gulf (Object Editions, 1998), and Free Space Comix (Roof, 1998). Along with several chapbooks of poetry, his other books include Before Starting Over: Selected Interviews and Essays 1994-2005 (Salt Publishing, 2006) and Fashionable Noise: On Digital Poetics (Atelos, 2003), which includes experimental essays on the role of algorithm in poetry and culture. His poems and essays have been translated into Icelandic, Spanish, Norwegian, French and other languages. Stefans is also working on a documentary about the Los Angeles post-punk scene from 1975-1987 called Scavenged Luxury. He lives in Hollywood where he teaches poetry, new media, and screenplay studies in the UCLA English department. 

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