Paper Airplane

The New Haven Coliseum (October 2005)

The New Haven Coliseum October 2005
(It will be knocked down on Jan 20)

Brown concrete bricks
Tumbled and shoveled
Into massive piles
With twisted metal
And pieces of thick,
Red and blue
Once sturdy plastic seats
I wondered if I actually sat in
Any of those seats
I was at the New Haven Coliseum
For Zappa, The Kinks, The Police,
Dylan and Manson (my son dragged me to that one)
Patty Smith, the circus, the ice capades,
An anti-war rally with Ralph Nader,
Basketball and hockey games
And countless other concerts and events
Over the last 30 years
I’ve seen seas of people wearing flannel shirts and
bell bottoms
Stood with a pack of 6,000 "Goths"
And sat with thousands of kids holding up tiger
flashlights
And cheering for the circus
These bricks
And seats
Have seen a lot –
Like The Who in 1980, which
I couldn’t get tickets for
Now the coliseum sits in
What looks like
Unappreciated heaps of "coliseum mix"
(just add water – or concrete – or something)
The concerts, as well as the events,
Have been scattered about the state now
The victim of the partnership created by the
State’s sleazy, big business music industry,
Where the promoters, concert venues and commercial
radio stations
Try to dictate what we ant to hear

(example – it probably goes something like:
the promoter can get Elton John to play a gig
even though it seems out of place and
Elton John hasn’t been relevant for 27 years
But the promoter books one of the venues he has a
partnership with
And then the popular radio station – which also has a
partnership with the promoter - starts playing a lot
of Elton John
and the DJ tries to make him sound relevant
and they spoon feed this shit to us
while, a band like King Crimson
which has released some kick-ass music over the past
decade
cannot get airplay or a decent venue to play in this
state…)

Anyway, a once proud building
Which didn’t really have great sound
But stood as the landmark that greeted visitors
To New Haven
Will be pushed aside
For a new "gateway" to the city.
I guess this is progress
But I’ll miss the old coliseum.

Video Game

Parent Teacher Conference (May 2001)

8:15 a.m.
sunny and tired
parent teachers conference
"Hello Mr. Kane
where's Mrs. Kane?"
I was asked by Jack's teacher.
"Hello Mr. Kane,
where's Mrs. Kane?"
I was asked again
by Jack's Reading teacher.
They looked disappointed
when I said
from my small
third-grade chair
"She'll try to make it later."
So
after tossing each other a
"what's the fucken point" look,
they started talking about Jack
at first talking at me
like I was one of the third graders
then they started talking in "education speak"
you know,
like when blocks aren't blocks anymore
because they're manipulatives
and the small work room isn't a classroom anymore
because its a resource room.
they seemed happy
talking like that.
At one point,
just to fuck with me,
they started talking in Latin
(they even gave each other a high-five during that
conversation)
I enjoyed the art work on the walls
and remembered my days
in third grade.
I would look out the window
and dream of a day when I could escape.
The meeting changed, of course,
when Kelly arrived
"Mrs. Kane,
How nice to see you" they said in harmony
as Kelly sat down.
They actually shifted their seats
to face her
their tone was conversational
their content informational
it turned out to be a great meeting
and
afterwards
when Kelly and I talked about the meeting
while standing among the teachers'
smartly cleaned shiny cars
I couldn't help but to share my observation:
you know, I said,
the meeting sucked at first
No, Kelly said
Oh Yes, I said
and continued on...
I guess if you have a penis
these bitches are incapable
of talking to you.
I read to Jack
I play with Jack
I help with his homework
I do as much with Jack as you
but because I have a penis they have the fucken nerve
to treat
me like I haven't got a clue about my child's
education (I ranted)
I mean, have you ever...
But if these two bitches -
who are wonderful teachers -
But if these two bitches
were going to pull on my penis,
then Kelly was going to step in and sever it...
Did I ever? Kelly repeated
yes, every day, she said.
women are always treated like that
every day by people who have penises
and they treat women like that
because women don't have a penis
Did I ever?, Kelly said again,
with a hearty laugh!
yes, it hurt me
but what could I say
I told Kelly "
I would love to sit here and chat with
you, but I have to go to work"
and I meekly walked away
and when I got back to the car
I checked to make sure the penis was still there

3,000

Cell Phone (Romantic Musings for the New Millennium) March 2000

cell phone (romantic musings for the new millennium) March 2000

If I abandon my cellular telephone
and my voice mail and e-mail
and my pager and palm pilot
I believe I will soon be forgotten

You can make it happen for you too

we could go away for a few months
but we don't really have to go far
if we make ourselves out of touch

my back deck could be hundreds of miles away
or we could visit downtown -
within shouting distance to all the people
who would frantically be trying to get in touch with us
and they would never know we walked right past them

because without that cellular telephone
and without the voice mail and e-mail
we don't exist
we would be trapped in a world where people
would not be in constant contact
with someone who was somewhere else

everyone trying to get in touch with us
would figure we fell off
the face of
the earth
only to be replaced by someoneelse@someE-mail.com
we would soon be forgotten
Out-of-immediate-contact-out-of-mind

without those virtual, electronic chains that keep us captive to a fast paced
life which was created, no doubt, in an advertising office somewhere
we could actually interact face to face with people
human to human
no gimmicks
(you know - like they did in the old days)

after awhile
we could get new cellular telephones
and get a new voice mail and get a new e-mail address
and, with that, get our new identities
but...
let's not

Lies

Killer Newsroom (December 2005)

Killer Newsroom (December 2005)

The newsroom was quiet
although it usually wasn't
They lost one of their own
murdered - butchered actually -
and the police were there
to ask a few questions

So this is what it takes
to quiet a newsroom,
I thought
To quiet the talking
and sounds of computer keys
being banged into stories
and the undertone of phones dialing, slaming
and reporters quizzing people on the other end

Even the sports' writers
who are usually always loud
(when they aren't eating...
and even then they are loud)
were quiet

Most of the reporters
and members of the copy desk
would say Margaret was a good person
and a meticulous editor
although they didn't really think that
The reporters didn't like her
even though they didn't really know her
as a person

As a copy editor
they all hated her
She was "a butcher"
they would say
She ruined most of their stories
The reporters complained
she changed things
she added things
she took things out of stories
She couldn't do that
Not to them
Especially since they acted like
(and believed)
they knew so much more than her!

Now there was an empty chair
at her still cluttered desk
Just as Margaret left it
a hiking book on Connecticut state parks
a dictionary
and stacks of newspapers
Margaret would sit at her desk
with her long, bushy red hair pulled back
and a cup of coffee and pack of Winston's nearby
And ussually she would read the stories
and then rewrite them
and often just killed stories -
putting them in a limbo -
an editorial black hole -
where they would die
And that's where she figured they belonged
if she thought they were inferior
to a standard she still believed
"journalists" should have

Tucked away
off to the side of the newsroom
almost
in the usually "neat and tidy" business section
where reporters still wore neckties
was Nick
a clean-cut person -
most people considered him boring -
they wouldn't even ask him out for a beer -
typing away on a biotech story
while everyone else
whispered about Margaret
and whoever it was the police would have in the conference room

And the reporters all had their theories
- they always did -
about Margaret's demise
and how they should handle it
as a news story

Nick worked quietly
occasinally smiling to himself
Margaret killed one of Nick's stories
the week before
It was on a biotech company
and it's public stock offering
It was a favorable story
and probably could have made anyone who invested in the company
- like Nick -
a lot of money
Nick put his life's savings into the company
It was a can't miss opportunity
(especially for someone in a field
where there was little money to make)
No one else paid much attention to the story
And it probably would have ran
But Margaret needed to check facts first
like she always did
So she made a phone call
and learned that the drug
developed by the company
would never make it to the next phase of testing

That needed to be reported
she thought
Not the fluff Nick sent
So she killed the story
Which killed Nick's plans
to make some real money

Nick watched
as the police talked to everyone
one by one
the whole staff

He was sure
no one would ever
discover what he did.
He was sure
the lingering
feeling of warm blood
on his now clean hands
would soon go away

Who's the butcher now? he thought

Jack's Movie Recommendations

10 Movies I Recommend
By ARMORED EMU (aka Jack - the kid who is always hanging out in Dial M for Movies)

1. The Big Lebowski R funny as hell, good lines and bowling
2. Donnie Darko R Good story; well made and has a demonic bunny. Awesome
3. Clerks R Funny, sick and has hockey: what’s not to love?
4. Running Scared R Well made. Good camera and lighting and the story is cool
5. A Clockwork Orange R Sick. Bad sound track, but a good movie. A good R.I.P. for Stanley Kubrick
6. Resident Evil 1and 2 R Zombies and a cool main character. The game is good too
7. Sin City R Cool looking. All stories tie in. It rocks - period
8. The Chum Scrubber R An anti drug movie with a good sound track. Flow anyone?
9. Dr.Strangelove PG A funny anti war movie by Kubrick. When he does funny; its funny
10. Repo Man PG-13 Funny. Good sound track and a car that burns people

All movies on list fond in Dial M for Movies