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.
|