Tropes

Why are plots always sinister?
Why always proud to be a sponsor?
Why stay the course and never lose hope?
Running away is perfectly fine, why be so beholden to tropes?

...

My contribution, as you know well, was a result of none too subtle blackmail
For when you passed me in Times Square in the company of that discreet female
You remarked, "Fancy seeing you here my dear uncle in these streets"
Hot pink. Just as she wiped the telling smudges of lipstick
An understanding, an agreement in your eyes to not sing like a bird
Still, proud sponsor, it rankles, even as I've kept my word

...

Now now, there's a perfectly innocent explanation
No need to make a drama out of this situation
Some go with double lives, lies and fabrications
I rather prefer the subtle art of omission
Not another word more, no one needs to know
Loose lips sink ships, careful as you go
And prefer strategic silence instead of playing the improviser
Default deny is a straightforward policy, there's nothing sinister

...

Life lessons, it takes a village, and all that talk
A proper education. Lean in. Stand strong. Walk tall
Think. Buyer beware. Hell hath no fury
Also: le silence n'est pas un oubli

Compromising Situation, a playlist

A soundtrack for this note (spotify version)

• Say Nothing by Omar
• Don't Explain by Billie Holiday
• Man of the World by Peter Green
• It's a Man's, Man's Man's World by James Brown
• Busted by Ray Charles
• Le Silence n'est pas un Oubli by Orchestre Les As de Benin
• Situation by Yaz
• Busted by The Isley Brothers
• Compromising Situation by Elecktra
• Silence is Golden by Franki Valli & the Four Seasons
• Blackmail by Donell Jones
• Busted by Stephanie McDee
• Man of the World by Eric Clapton

File under: humour, life, lies, culture, observation, perception, betrayal, language, Observers are worried, poetry, toli

Writing log: June 1, 2023

Only Interests

Bureaucratic maneuvering born of sharp elbows
Directing the ultimate operational examples
We have only interests and shades of gray

So. Thoroughly flesh out the preferred option
While presenting limp policy alternatives
These fig leaves adorn the poisoned chalice
We have only interests, it's worth the price we pay

Constructing straw men in this intellectual game
Realpolitik when it comes to brass tacks
A balancing act of supposed hard choices
We have only interests, tough decisions have to be made

Deflection, play down the issue of an embargo
Encourage accommodation and liberal treatment
Throughout, proffer expressions of sorrow
We have only interests come what may

Moral blinders in the form of dual purpose equipment
Facade of toothless sanctions against de jure illegality
Exchange programs in all categories, including military
We have only interests, suffice to say

As to the unfettered pursuit of power and wealth
Cynical calculation asserting favored preferences
The strange architecture of misdirection
We have only interests, the decisions have been made

After National Security Study Memorandum 39 And The Future Of United States Policy Toward Southern Africa by Edgar Lockwood


File under: USA, politics, policy, cynicism, rogues, war, language, hatchet job, Great Game, Strange Bedfellows, Africa, Observers are worried, poetry, toli

Writing log: May 24, 2023

Trouble Manufacturers

Trouble manufacturers, all competitor coupons happily accepted
We are never knowingly undersold, you've, no doubt, heard our enduring promise
Our prices are insane, truly, nobody beats us
For trouble is our business. Satisfaction guaranteed

The future of anxiety retail is moving in our direction
Extra discounts on distress will be applied when you check out
Rest assured, our no pressure tactics are world renowned
And if all else fails, consider our money back guarantee

Worry on demand, cash on delivery
A legendary family-owned business
Take part in our award winning retail experience
Premium service for all, pricing you can understand
Trouble manufacturers
Affordable luxury each and every day

Trouble, a playlist

A soundtrack for this note (spotify version)

• Trouble Man by Marvin Gaye
• Trouble by Jose James
• Trouble by Amel Larrieux
• Nothin But Trouble by Charlie Hunter
• Trouble by Stanley Turrentine
• You See the Trouble With Me by Barry White
• Double Trouble by The Roots
• Trouble by Lizz Wright
• Double Trouble by Beres Hammond

File under: humour, language, culture, absurd, poetry, toli

Writing log: May 21, 2023

Significations

Just past the circumlocution office
Working in the obfuscation quarter
Dogon turanci as the Hausa say
Long-winded sentences, empty phrases

For when the content of one's thought is blanketed by evasion
Comes the turn to bureaucratese and the many uses of euphemism
Couched as higher learning such is the defense mechanism
Leading with this badge proudly proffered to escape derision

Sesquipedalian in intent and strategy
Winding down with a touch of verbosity
A facility with words intended to obscure
Prolix pronouncements and significations

Significations, a playlist

A soundtrack for this note (spotify version)

• Don't Say Nuthin' by The Roots
• Empty Talk by Alvin Robinson
• So Watcha Sayin' by EPMD
• Long Winded by Blahzay Blahzay
• What'd I Say by Ray Charles
• Don't Say Nuthin' (remix) by The Roots
• Blah Blah Blah by Blahzay Blahzay

File under: humour, language, hatchet job, misdirection, culture, observation, perception, absurd, poetry, toli

Writing log. May 9, 2023

Attrition Curve

Voluntary separation
Consider it an opportunity
If it fits with your plans
Might as well take the money

Take the offer, for sure, it's a tough call
For, who knows, the next time will be involuntary
It isn't pretty, you know, when the ax falls
Firings, unemployment, turmoil, redundancies

Take the buyout, it's relatively generous too
Just surprising that they'd pay you to leave
Pitching it as early retirement or the chance for something new
Ignoring entirely all the tales they were spinning just last week

To their credit, they aren't handling it like others in the industry
The fashion of layoffs is catching, albeit their choices are arbitrary
Impersonal, the casual cruelty of what they call restructuring activities
But no doubt it still hurts to have them talk of performance calibration
Empty phrases: managing the attrition curve, structural costs reduction

Voluntary Separation, a playlist

A soundtrack for this note (spotify)

• Buyout by The Floozies
• Can't Afford You Mad Cobra
• All I Have to offer you (is me) by Charley Pride
• Buyout by Esham
  Imagining what one would do with the proceeds of the Chrysler buyout. Cautionary tales have their own soundtrack
• Your Mess by Omar
• I'm a Mess by Anthony Hamilton
• Dog Days are Over by Florence and the Machine
• All Good Things (Come to an End) by Nelly Furtado
• Unexpected Things by Hohzo
• Severance by Street Fever

Bonus beats Get Rid Ah Dem by Sizzla

...

Previously, in the same vein:

• Restructuring Activities
• A Resource Action
• Workforce Rebalancing
• A Message from our Leader
• Involuntary Termination

File under: language, bureaucracy, work, economics, corporation, culture, job, USA, observation, poetry, perception, capitalism, humour, satire, The Rough Beast, toli

Writing log: May 12, 2023

Including Toy Guns

At approximately 1:30 this afternoon, a student brandished a gel blaster gun and began using it in the hallways. The student was immediately apprehended by staff and was detained by our Student Resource Officer. The campus was placed on a "Hold" from 1:30–1:55 p.m. while staff and [redacted] police made sure the area was safe.

Please remind your children about the dangers of students bringing certain items, including toy guns, to school. Possession of any type of weapon — including a toy — is a serious violation of the [redacted] Student Code of Conduct.

...

We need to have a talk, my children
You're old enough to hear the deal

You do remember, we've had the sex talk already
All that stuff about the birds and the bees

We've had the race talk also, a puzzler that one
When I brought up ignorance, that social disease

But, mark my words, I'm raising you in America
That land of opportunity, with all that it means

Cringe, I know, your father's message, but hear me out on this
Lest I ever hear of you saying that you can't breathe

Far too many lives have been lost, consigned to thoughts and prayers
People just like you, brought low for the most dubious of reasons

Truth be told, this society is funeral minded
I can barely keep up, the litany of hazards we face daily

Knocking on the wrong door, jogging, or simply reaching
We can now add another, but this one is easily avoided

The subject is weapons, the danger is the perception
Some might say that it's a matter of possession

Albeit you might be having a little bit of fun
Careful of the things you carry including toy guns

True, in our family, we've always held that education is war
But the new warfare is metaphorical, don't bring in bows and arrows

I kid you not, it's unfortunate, there's no foolproof protection
Even a raised umbrella can cause no small amount of trouble

So if you must wield a weapon, let it be in the form of your thoughts
And express them judiciously, for no one is promised tomorrow

Your words will carry you but remember
It doesn't cost much to bite your tongue

Do go out of your way to make others comfortable
Proudly wear, as you do, that mask of civility

But make sure that it is only heartfelt outrage
That causes you to be accused of disturbing tranquility

That's all I have for now, I cry at night that you can be viewed as a threat
Despite all of our efforts, this country decidedly fails to protect

That we live in this strange world full of perils including toy guns
Carry on as you were, you're my favorite daughter and son

See previously: Prone, Action Items and Response Consultant

File under: USA, blood, violence, absurd, culture, observation, weapons, modernity, perception, language, bureaucracy, life, poetry, outrage, guns, The Rough Beast, Observers are worried, toli

Writing log. May 8, 2023

Word Choice

She wrote "gathered". He was intrigued by the word choice
"Would you have preferred 'stolen'?", she said in reply
The silence after her retort was pregnant, loaded with reflection
Clearly many far more graphic words could well apply

She was being diplomatic, the occasion called for euphemism
There was no need to bring up the conqueror's catechism
The damage was done, the crown jewels were befitting
Why mention the earlier propensity for looting?

Those from the land of gold are connoisseurs of opacity
Who feel little burden in wearing masks of civility
There's a time and place, we aver, for plain speaking
But the sphinx modalities inform our private thinking

And, yes, the word gathered belies those fraught histories
An apt pointer to past abuses and enduring legacies
And, of the frayed fabric of memory still awaiting reparation,
A reminder: it's a choice to forgo truth and reconciliation

After King Charles' coronation: How would it happen in Ghana? (BBC, May 4, 2023)

Listen also: Loot, a playlist (spotify version)

File under: colonialism, euphemism, language, Africa, culture, observation, perception, memory, history, Observers are worried, poetry, toli

Writing log. May 4, 2023

Recidivist

I murdered a metaphor
Crushed it after a long delay
I'll admit upfront, I was a repeat offender
And yes, my parole officer cautioned me about the terms of my probation
Severe he was, he reminded me about the restrictions on carrying weapons
And further advised me to not associate with writers wielding puns

But it was hard to resist the temptation
The twelve step program hardly had time to have an effect
Euphemism lingers in the body, I wondered if I would pass the drug test
Albeit irony works best at close quarters, I was afraid to use a gun
In the end it was appalling, I strangled it with my bare hands

I remember an earlier time when I didn't hesitate to plunge the knife
Trigger happy, I was especially fond of vicious verbal sallies
Flesh wounds, back then I was addicted to biting satire
The sting in the tail after lobbing hand grenades, double entendres
Or poisoning the well with exaggeration born of my misspent youth
After such lampooning, my many victims came to bloody ends

The teasing was drawn out in this case, it couldn't stand the torture
Begged me to put it out of its misery, I laughed while it murmured
As you know, in the torrid zone, many prefer the water treatment
I kept up the pressure, continued drip feeding wit for days on end
Believe me, with a steady diet of blood and sin, you get results
I tell you, the vivid scenarios I enacted, it was a veritable mess
You’ve, no doubt, heard in these parts of the heart of darkness

The ban on assault weapons had been revoked, I lived then in modern America
I'd sought refuge in wordplay, word fugitive, for such is my asylum
My predicament, internally displaced, it was a strange kind of life
I purchased soul insurance, prepaid the premiums due for the coffin
Literature only, funeral minded, it overwhelmed the senses

This, then, is my confession, it was not written under any duress
Mind you, I traffic in tall tales, I daresay I'm a recidivist
By the time you read this I'll have turned myself in to the authorities
To wit: yes, it was a dark and stormy night, in a far, faraway land
Something was in the water, when I murdered a metaphor again
At length I hammered away with my point and paid attention to the details
For when it comes down to it, to a writer, every story is a nail

Murder, a playlist

A soundtrack for this note (spotify version)

• Murder She Wrote by Chaka Demus
• I've Committed Murder Macy Gray
• 10 Minutes of Murder - Black Thought Freestyle
• Out in the Street they call it Murder by Ini Kamoze
• Murderer by Barrington Levy
• I Can't Help It by Michael Jackson
• Lyrics of Fury by Eric B & Rakim
• Ain't No Half-Steppin' by Big Daddy Kane
• Irresistible by Miles Jaye
• Word Play by A Tribe Called Quest

See previously: Soul Inspiration and The Early Bird Catches the Poem

File under: language, whimsy, humour, metaphor, culture, observation, wit, poetry, toli

Writing log: February 5, 2023

Response Consultant

America bestows gifts
To its favored sons
But exacts a heavy price

Giving rise to job titles that confound,
The nature of the dream is a patent lie
This land of plenty
Dispenses the characteristic headline:

"Active shooter response consultant shares insight"

Threat readiness, crisis training.
Developing situational awareness
Uneasy phrases marketing a lucrative industry.
A growing corporate business

A proud legacy
This bloody exceptionalism,
The fruit of tribal sacrifice

A balm of thoughts and prayers
In this austere ceremony
Roaring while closing one's eyes

After: Retired police officer, active shooter response consultant shares insight after Walmart shooting

Tuesday’s attack in Chesapeake is the 15th mass shooting location that Marko Galbreath has visited since he began his training.

(November 25, 2022)

Action Items, a playlist

A soundtrack for this lament (spotify version)

• What's Going On by Marvin Gaye
• Right and a Wrong Way by Keith Sweat
• Prayer by D'Angelo
• The Moment I Feared by Slick Rick

See previously: Action Items and Prone

File under: USA, blood, violence, absurd, culture, observation, modernity, perception, language, bureaucracy, corporation, work, life, poetry, outrage, The Rough Beast, Observers are worried, toli

Writing log: November 26, 2022

The Early Bird Catches the Poem

I woke up hearing your brain buzzing,
   It sounded like a lawnmower
Or perhaps it was like a landscape crew
   Deploying their leaf blowers
Disturbing tranquility in the neighborhood,
   I could hear all your thoughts
Clearly, you were lining something up
   Troubling and mischievous

Oh, I hear you say, it must have been a dream,
   You were still sleeping
But lying next to you,
   I could tell from the way you were breathing
The gears were starting to shift,
   As if you were deciphering a puzzle
Leaving me to wonder
   What a girl has to do these days to get a cuddle

What is it this time? Another poem? Really!
     Or is it that godforsaken novel?
That you seduced me with all those years ago.
     I always knew that you were trouble
Now I see you, lost in thought, contemplating,
     Long before the crack of dawn
With sleep in your eye, yet acting
     As if you want to catch the morning sun

You're having an affair with the muse.
     That's right, I know your shady ways
Don't smile at me. I'm the other woman,
     Who's lost her man to constant wordplay
You'd best shape up, you know
     If you want to keep me in the marital home
Don't laugh now, how dare you. What's that?

"The early bird catches the poem"

Early Bird, a playlist

A soundtrack for this note (spotify version)

• Body and Mind by Heavy D

  Your body's here with me
  But your mind is on the other side of town

• Early in the Morning The Gap Band
• You Can't Turn Me Away by Sylvia Striplin
• In the Morning by Omar
• Earn my Affection by Amel Larrieux

  Put your back into it

• The Other Part of Town by Horace Parlan & Grant Green
• Soul Inspiration by Anita Baker
• Good Morning by Gregory Isaacs
• Conception by Black Thought
• Love from a Distance by Beres Hammond

Or alternatively Close to You by Maxi Priest

In my defense, it was the excitement of the winter solstice that stirred the mind that morning but it seems I was misconstrued.

See previously in a similar vein: Quality of Life and The Stereotype

File under: humour, life, culture, observation, perception, Creative Process, language, whimsy, marriage, poetry, toli

Writing log: December 21, 2022

Dark Milestones

A dark milestone, they said, and a "terrible toll"
A profound loss repeated so many times is awful
Easy words out of the mouth of these opportunists
Spewed in profusion as a shield for their mistakes

Their blather rather underscored the lack of concern
As if one could be saved by platitudinous laments
What was once unthinkable became the norm,
 we heard of incalculable loss
Mass extinction on a regular basis, so many were paying the cost

The unending daily tallies were duly consigned to the middle pages
We heard of fatigue and, after false starts, a return to normalcy
Time to move on, they said, we should resign ourselves to mass death
Fatalistic even when the evidence showed that things could be mitigated

The brief moment of solidarity had passed,
 the clapping and shared sacrifice
It was all up to individual choice,
 people should be left to their own devices
The previous narratives reasserted themselves
 in this renewed torrid zone
The rest is history, all that remained was to mark the dark milestones

After a dark milestone (January 2022)

See previously A Panoply of Mistakes a year earlier

Wrong, a playlist

I might as well recycle the previous playlist, nothing changed in the interim, only the body count. (spotify version)

This internal displacement is part of a series: In a covidious time.

File under: failure, coronavirus, pandemic, hypocrisy, outrage, hatchet job, culture, observation, England, incompetence, politics, language, humour, Observers are worried, Buyer's Remorse, covidious, poetry, toli

Writing log. Concept: January 10, 2022. June 1, 2022

Giant Checks

"The Prime Minister then handed out giant checks to the bereaved
A sign, he said, that the state would take care of those who have lost so much"

— Thailand nursery attack (BBC report, October 7, 2022)

Giant checks, devoid of meaning
Thoughts and prayers, the theater of grief
A parade of penance and ritual tributes

Giant checks, post-facto regret
Consolation payments, the language of impotence
The wages of acceptable loss

Giant checks, base calculations of uniformed men
Seasoned with blood, whither the monopoly of violence?
Witness the performance of authority

Giant checks to the bereaved, a duty of care
Not to mention the provision of little urns and coffins
A fine display, the toll unbearable, the final indignities

Giant checks, props for a national calamity
The sobbing and shrieks, a symphony of despair
An unending stillness in others, more worrying are these vacant stares

Giant checks, empty gestures
Roused by tragedy, the coup maker's show of concern
Balm for communal numbness

Giant checks, strictly by the numbers
Effigies erected to solace, pain underwritten in large print
Sorrow in sans-serif and block letters

Giant checks disbursed in the aftermath of death
Survivor's guilt by way of comfort and healing
Mandatory compensation for those still breathing

Giant checks, lottery winners
A failure to protect, pageantry in the wake of slaughter
This too could happen to you

Giant Checks, a playlist

A soundtrack for this note (spotify version)

• Check out your Mind by Curtis Mayfield
• King of Sorrow by Sade
• Can't buy me by Femi Kuti
• Sorrow, Tears and Blood by Fela Kuti
• Meaningless Money by Kuber Bhaskar
• Sorrow doesn't Resurrect by Ark Patrol

Bonus beats: Sorry ain't enough by Sault

See previously: Ritual Tributes and Action Items

File under: language, hatchet job, outrage, satire, violence, blood, theatre, Thailand, military, crime, humour, culture, observation, perception, grief, mourning, Observers are worried, Buyer's Remorse, poetry, toli

Writing log. October 7, 2022

Drop, Chain and Accordion

Harbingers of malnutrition
The Four Horsemen of hunger season
While the first three duly entered our vocabulary
The fourth, left to shame, was pushed to the recesses of memory

The drop was the most embarrasing of these musketeers
Because, when first encountered, he caught you unawares
The sudden drop of your clothing - you were now half your size
Exposing your nether regions to the fresh air and curious eyes

By the time you got to the chain or the accordion, you'd find yourself spent
Having long made your peace with this state of affairs: eternal Lent
Accustomed as you were to - call it by its name, starvation
After all, you were living through a proper People's Revolution

Marking the spot on your belt where you would pierce the extra notch
Or wearing belts where you previously had none - acceptable loss
Improvised contraptions for your skirts and trousers hopefully holding
Under military rule, we were at a remove from skirt-and-blouse voting

The second horseman, the chain, spoke to tears and sorrow
A cynical description of a neckline that was now hollow
Jewelry of a sort, a macabre, if fashionable, decoration
Thriftiness embodied in your very person, a celebration

The third horseman, the equal opportunity composer, the accordion
Orchestrated skinny rib cages visibly appealing to both old and young
A skeletal music of fatigue, unmet needs and quiet exhaustion
He devised a twelve bar blues, if you will, of quotidian suffering

As to the fourth, rickety, he mainly dealt with little children
Confounding in his physicality as should be readily apparent
Kwashiorkor, quite a mouthful, the dreadful disease
The characteristic bloating, the ironic mark of the beast

Weight loss, hair loss, failure to thrive, and apathy
And then we come to those now-distended extremities
And even with the outrage and the sense of violation
The question still remains, why were these men laughing?

Nature may be a cruel companion, what with droughts and brush fires
Yet it was a man-made disaster, preventable, and caused by these liars
With limited food resources, this had all the makings of a tragedy
Worse, they were warned well in advance at the time yet they carried on stubbornly

Quite bewildering though, and damaging to the psyche
To be branded as requiring all the world's charity
Stalking horses of hunger seasons past, harrowing and dubious legacies
Ancestral memories passed across the ages, fear and survival strategies

The fourth horseman, although it must be said, was rather solicitous,
Didn't lend himself to a coinage that was quite so felicitous
The lived experience was stark and dispiriting, disturbing in its dismay
Awful enough that even that angel Euphemism couldn't summon an uneasy phrase

Drop, chain and accordion, then, were the fateful entries
Albeit History gave unkind placement in the dictionaries
They would be prefixed in the lexicon by his name
To the Flight Lieutenant's great and everlasting shame

Such however is the way of privation, the nature of its exigency
That, even in the darkest hours, in the depths of an emergency
Gallows humor reigns, it calls forth linguistic innovation and whimsy
Proverbial zingers, sharp aphorisms, etched forever in memory

...

Basket cases
Tiny coffins
Circling vultures
Calmly watching

Weeping mothers
Hunger pangs
And the crowds
Scrambling for crumbs

...

Starving children don't cry
Tears waste too many calories
Shame, that so many had to die
Shame, again, their swollen bellies

Hunger, a playlist

A soundtrack for this note (spotify version)

• Pearls by Sade
  Melodramatic as befits the tragic scene she describes, mournful this ode to wounded pride.
• Hungry Blues by Jimmy Johnson & His Orchestra
• Never Mind the Hungry Blues by Larry Carlton
• Got the Hunger by Alice Russell
• Them Belly Full (But We Hungry) by Bob Marley
• Man Hungry by Sugar Minot
• When Hungry Walks by Gregory Isaacs
• Hungry Belly Pickney by Freddie Macgregor
• Hungry Belly Dub by King Tubby
• Very, Very Hungry by Brian Eno & David Byrne
  An instrumental track from the experimental album My Life in the Bush of Ghosts

Bonus beats: Hungry Belly by Frankie Paul & Pinchers, mainly for the title for this is a story about girl from Flatbush named Aisha. And of course, three live versions of Sade's Pearls, a show stopper ever since she composed it.


...

After Hunger for Sale (Talking Drums, October 3, 1983)

And also for that friend who startled me with the vehemence of his reaction when I teased him about his short stature. "Some of us didn't have our growth spurt during those years, we had Rawlings chains instead". A brief, damning silence ensued before joviality made its return. With my vaunted exile meshed with his explicit denial, our friendship, perhaps, was salved by the balm of the musical imagery. But the bitterness lingered.

And if archeologists can detect the evidence of famines and stunted growth like tree rings, etched in human bones, linguists and social historians can similarly escavate matters. Both earthquakes and man-made disasters leave their marks. Dzorwulu becomes 'the place that dropped', the valley of urban remembrance. Drop, chain and accordion as pointed modes of resistance in our hunger season.

Poetry as cultural memory then. Coinages bear the tide marks of social distress. In any case, this one's for you.

See previously Identification Haircut and, retrospectively, AFRC Member

File under: humour, hatchet job, satire, culture, observation, perception, language, Ghana, Africa, coup, rogues, dictator, military, famine, disaster, failure, outrage, memory, Observers are worried, poetry, toli

Writing log: September 18, 2022

Lines

Pink lines are the new shape of dread
The weary anticipation of the so-called rapid test
Faint traces of the untimely failures of our defenses
Or an unwelcome rejoinder to our wilful recklessness

Red lines that bellicose nations brandish
Their diplomats echoing aggressive rhetoric
Not to be crossed or we'll give you the "or else" treatment
The new warfare, like the old, is said to be indecent
By design, it's hard to trace the contours of these boundaries
Seeing as they are drawn up essentially to support a casus belli

White lines that crackle with the powder of addiction
Just say no, resist the temptation, said the erstwhile First Lady
"No Dope, No Drugs", for good measure, chimed in Mr T
For white lines mark the streets with broken dreams

Yellow lines outline a zone, never cross the double ones
Symbolic, indicating waiting or parking restrictions
The DC Metro one tends to shut down for up to eight months
The price of deferred maintenance, repairs and rehabilitation
Safety first, passing is forbidden in both directions
Prohibition, as inconveniences grow, try to avoid obstructions

Power lines, careful around them, electricity
The skeletal frame of our modernity
Infrastructure, what you realize in its absence that you miss
Prime candidate for what went wrong in the root cause analysis

Don't leave anything behind, always put it all on the line
Read the room, be forever mindful of the party line
Embrace euphemism, ambiguity and blurred lines
Careful as you go, tread warily, walk a thin line
Lines in the sand, drawing up lessons learned
Histories remade by the storyteller and promptly unlearned
Comfort suites of ephemera, until such time
Caution, take heed, where you end up down the line
For if the front line is where names are made
It is also where most of the bodies are laid

Lines, a playlist

A funky soundtrack for this note (spotify version)

• The Line by D'Angelo
• Blue Lines by Massive Attack
• Down the Line by Gregory Isaacs
• White Lines by Grandmaster Melle Melle
• The Groove Line by Heatwave
• Blurred Lines by Robin Thicke
• Lines by Eric Leeds
• Put it on the line by Lyn Collins
• Dub on the Front Line by King Jammy
• Front Line by Chuckii Booker
• The Line by Prince

File under: humour, whimsy, culture, observation, life, language, perception, poetry, toli

Writing log: September 14, 2022

Involuntary Termination

Register now! A ninety minute session
For human resources professionals
Update your knowledge about redundancies
And learn about terminating employees safely

As the latest research has shown
The risks of a former employee filing discrimination charges
Increases significantly - and therein lies the danger,
After they are terminated involuntarily

Hence the importance of documentation
And having the right steps and procedures
When conducting disciplinary discussions
For a termination should be handled well

Active preparation makes good business sense
Writing and following a script to minimize legal risk
Helps you maintain employee morale and productivity
The benefits of effective termination practices

Involuntary Termination, a playlist

A soundtrack for this note (spotify version)

• Hydra by Grover Washington Jnr
• Break it to me Gently by Angela Bofill
• Softly Softly by Sweetback ft Maxwell
• Break You Off by The Roots ft Musiq
• Break it to me Gently by Juice Newton

Previously, in the same vein:

• Restructuring Activities
• A Resource Action
• Workforce Rebalancing
• A Message from our Leader

File under: humour, satire, language, bureaucracy, work, economics, corporation, culture, job, USA, observation, poetry, perception, capitalism, The Rough Beast, toli

Writing log: September 22, 2022

The Incident Is Under Review

The incident is under review

...

The Israeli military said
There had been a "technical error"
With a strike targeting an Islamic Jihad "terrorist"
That caused the munition to fall
Dozens of metres from the target

...

An initial inquiry
Regarding injured individuals
Suggests fragments from a shell
Fired during operational activity in the area
Hit the church mistakenly

...

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said
It was aware of the "claim
Regarding casualties in the area as a result"

...

The IDF "regrets any harm to uninvolved civilians"

...

Israel deeply regrets
That a stray ammunition:
Hit Gaza's Holy Family Church

...

The IDF directs its strikes solely at military targets
And makes every feasible effort
To mitigate harm to civilians and religious structures,
And regrets any unintentional damage caused to them

...

Every innocent life lost is a tragedy.
We share the grief of the families and the faithful

...

The IDF works to mitigate civilian harm "as much as possible"

...

Israel remains committed to protecting civilians and holy sites

...

Children Among at Least 10 Killed in Israeli Strike in Central Gaza, Officials Say

The victims were gathered near a water distribution point, health workers said

July 13, 2025

...

Israel says it regrets deadly strike on Catholic Church in Gaza

July 17, 2025

...

Israeli Strike on a Gaza Church Kills Three

...

Israeli forces killed at least 27 people in attacks in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, including the three killed in the church strike, according to medics and church officials.

...

The cause of the incident is under review

...

Israel is investigating the incident

...

The incident is under review, the military added

The incident is under review, a playlist

A soundtrack for this note (spotify version)

• Under review by Master Planned Music
• War by Bob Marley & the Wailers
• Can't buy soul by Hebrew Rogers
• Eastern incident by Sonny Clark
• Under review by Fabrice Ravel-Chapuis
• Geneva Convention by John Sloman
  

  You can kill them all / But just kill them nicely

• War by Edwin Starr
• Ain't it the truth by Catalyst
• Isn't it a pity by Nina Simone
• Geneva convention by BYU Synthesis
• Under review by Luuccid Dreamur
• Geneva convention by Peter Wiberg
• Geneva convention by Dow Brain

After a few news reports this past week

See also: On a Man who was Protected by Another Man by Hilaire Belloc

Perhaps we can file these expressions of regret under the banner of The Rough Beast which asks: who is writing the script?

File under: outrage, blood, language, war, obfuscation, misdirection, Israel, military, Palestine, hatchet job, rogues, atrocity, culture, observation, perception, The Rough Beast, poetry, toli

Writing log: July 17, 2025

An Abundance of Caution

What is there to say?
Security theater
Newspaper headlines:

- Mahmoud Khalil returns home after release on bail from federal detention after 104 days

- Pakistan to nominate Trump for Nobel Peace Prize

— The U.S. enters Israel's war against Iran

- "One Earth, One Health": International Yoga Day provides respite in a tumultuous world

- The U.S dropped bombs on three nuclear sites, President Trump said on social media

Congratulations to our great American Warriors.
There is not another military in the World that could have done this.
NOW IS THE TIME FOR PEACE!
Thank you for your attention to this matter

...

In the US, New York's police department says it is deploying additional resources to religious, cultural, and diplomatic sites across the city "out of an abundance of caution"

What is there to say, a playlist

A soundtrack for this note (spotify version)

• Ishafan by Duke Ellington
• Redemption song by Bob Marley
• Reflection by Prince
• Peace piece by Bill Evans
• Jarabi by Toumani Diabaté

After this query

File under: language, huhudious, war, USA, hatchet job, rogues, Israel, Iran, power, politics, culture, observation, perception, humour, satire, Observers are worried, The Rough Beast, poetry, toli

Writing log: June 21, 2025

Contraction

"Can I help who's next?"

The mantra of the person at the service counter
An aggravation. A provocation to this grammar pedant

For the question always sounds awkward to these ears
As it appears to be a contraction of "Can I help whoever's next?"¹
A contraction born of sheer number of times the question is uttered every day

Mind you, I too would seek to minimize the number of syllables I have to say
I too would pay lip service to the corporate overlords that write my welcome script

It struck me, however, that a little syntax could come to the rescue
That my naysaying can be remedied with some punctuation
For, if rendered as "Can I help? Who's next?"
The insertion of a question mark would solve the concern

The only problem is that, in practice, it never sounds like two questions
And so my ears continue to screech at the damn contraction²:

"Can I help who's next?"

Contraction, a playlist

A mostly dance soundtrack for this pedantic note (spotify version)

• Can I help you? by Amnesty
  From the crate digger's soul/funk holy grail album
• Can I help you by Dani Hageman
• Who's next? by Neighborhood Kids
• What can I help you with now? by Slick Stomp
• Contraction by Dxstxnce
• Can I help you by Adam Veldt
• Can I help you by Notches
• Contraction by Copy
• Next! by NCTS
• Contraction by Pau viguer
• How can I help you by Riverlabs

Bonus beats Excuse me Miss by Jay-Z

...

1. A former linguist pointed out that "Can I help the person who is next?" might be a better source for the contraction. I concur, although like the service industry invocation of Can I help the next customer? (or client, guest or whatever term The Company's service manual recommends), it is quite the mouthful. ↩
2. A political scientist harkened to the more salutory New York City contraction "Next!" which, with its conscision and emphatic declarative stance, minimizes the demands on the speaker, clarifies the intent to the bearer, reframes the mooted question as an exclamation, serves the proletarian interest being amenable to be uttered by a grunt while still paying lip service to the transactional demands of capital. I heartily recommend the practice. ↩

See previously Public Nuisance Number 64, Less Unfortunate Casualties and Ode to the word nuisant

File under: Small Things, language, syntax, grammar, bureaucracy, culture, observation, perception, humour, poetry, toli




Writing log: May 31, 2025

Health Insurance Codes

A doctor friend, it was, who graciously shared the secret
Explaining how to unlock a small measure of respect
Strategic, the secret codes the layman must decipher
To advance within the confines of this healthcare system

Apparently all it takes is to ask two simple questions
The mere mention of which triggers an industry alert
Healthcare professionals immediately put on guard
For it augurs that one is at ease with their language

In retrospect it's surprising that one needs this bit of self advocacy
Jargon to be able to navigate this rugged terrain of uncertainty
An American landscape of billing codes, errors and complexity
Rigged. Defensive medicine in the face of litigious uncertainty

Of course these are just openings, an entrée into a conversation
You make your own luck afterwards, for these are fraught situations
Your body and mind will continue to confront daily adversity
And your interlocutors will contend with the vagaries of biology

And so to the questions, deceptively simple but specific
It is best to feign an aura of comfort with the scientific:

What is the diagnosis?
What is the prognosis?

Code, a playlist

A soundtrack for this note (spotify version)

• Code by José James
• Complicated by Leela James
• Code of the Streets by Gang Starr
• Tell Me by Groove Theory
• Complicated (remix) by Leela James and Anthony Hamilton
• It's Code by Janelle Monáe
• Dr Soul by Foster McElroy ft MC Lyte
• Code (Live) by José James

File under: USA, insurance, obfuscation, language, strategy, healthcare, culture, observation, perception, comprehension, shell game, poetry, toli

Writing log. October 8, 2022