Suspended Disbelief

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One night along a shallow lake
there lay a campsite, pitched and staked,
logs for a fire stacked beside
in silence under dusky skies.

None knows yet how this scene shall play-
with plans abandoned, hopes dismayed?
They may appear only to quit,
no hammocks swayed nor matches lit.

Perhaps they will not come at all–
cold hearts and feet don’t wander far–
his loving gesture left unseen
by all but deer and forest green.

But down the trail they did arrive
and all his hopes were realized
for she was beaming at the scene
this camp a castle, she, the queen.

They made their picnic on the ground
to serenade of fire’s sound
small talk and smiles between each bite
soft gazes in the shadow light.

The hammock, in its frameless form
would hold them close and keep them warm
and so, into the soft cocoon
with wine in hand, to talk and spoon.

Within the safety of the dark
they spoke the truth of mind and heart:
Why is it that we did not last?
Can future differ from the past?

So levitated, they divined
that love still held their hearts entwined
despite the scar of damage done,
they held the space and did not run.

Once cups were emptied, burdens spent
he did take her to the tent,
and there within their private cave
he kissed her until, down she laid.

From soft caresses, breath arose
they merged into divine repose
as sweetness mounted, pleasure broke
until each speechless word was spoke.

Sometime between the dawn and night
she left the tent to greet first light
her dewy mind became perplexed
for they had not resolved “what’s next?”

Not yet awake, no more asleep–
there charm can fade and doubt can creep.
What really happened ‘tween the oaks?
No dues were paid, no vows were spoke.

But there among the beaver dams
there was no need for weighty plans
she lay back down mind clear, heart bare,
so to resume the dream they shared.

Model-T Ford

Detroit rendition of Janis Joplin’s classic satire “Mercedes Benz”

 

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Woman waiting for her bus at one of midtown’s primary intersections with no enclosure or even a seat to accommodate her

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Oh Lord won’t you buy me a Model T Ford?
The bus just ain’t coming and my feet are sore
worked hard at the factory til it motored no more,
oh Lord, won’t you buy me a Model T Ford?
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Public notice of the record-breaking 2015 tax foreclosure of 62,000+ Wayne County properties

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Oh Lord won’t you buy me a flatscreen TV?
The Fox Problem Solvers are trying to find me,
first they’ll pay my taxes, and then DTE,
oh Lord won’t you buy me a flat screen TV?
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Alternative entrance to the Wayne Country Treasurer office, through the Greektown Casino

Alternative entrance to the Wayne Country Treasurer office, through the Greektown Casino

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Oh lord won’t you buy me a night on Greektown?
The Treasure’s downstairs lord, so let’s win this round
A straight and I’ll love you; a flush I’m reborn,
oh lord, won’t you buy me a night on Greektown?

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Park Avenue Hotel soon before it was demolished to make way for a new arena for Red Wings Arena, owned by Little Ceasar's mogul Mike Illich in one of the anointed areas of the city's "Future City" plan

Park Avenue Hotel soon before it was demolished to make way for a new arena for Red Wings Arena, owned by Little Ceasar’s mogul Mike Illich

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Oh lord won’t you buy me a pizza franchise?
This whole Future City is passing me by
I’m hot and I’m ready for a piece of the pie,
oh lord won’t you buy me a pizza franchise?
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An occupied house on it's last leg

A recently-vacated home with a tricycle still on the porch joins the ranks of Detroit’s estimated 30,000 blighted buildings

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Oh lord won’t you buy me a house in the burbs?
This one will never get featured on Curbed.
Detroit does not want me, though I wanted her,
oh lord won’t you buy me a house in the burbs?
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Tribute to a Small-Town Music Teacher


PianoOn a summer Sunday afternoon, approximately 50 people gathered together at the St. Paul United Church of Christ for an unusual kind of surprise party. The woman in charge gave instructions, handed out signs for people along the aisle to hold, and surveyed the crowd “is there anyone here who knows how to play ‘The Entertainer’?” At this, an elderly woman in perfect posture raised her hand as though she’d been waiting all her life for just such a question, she took her seat at the piano at the front of the room and poised her hands above the keys in anticipation. At last, the guest of honor arrived. She made her way down the aisle of the church, greeting everyone and looking in surprise at the faces of old friends, neighbors, and students gathered there to see her. The shock seemed to slow her down, as did her walker and new artificial leg. This was a tribute recital to honor LaVonne Harris, who served her community as a piano and organ teacher for 44 years, and is now facing limitation on her ability to practice her craft after a series of recent health struggles. This was the sort of event that every teacher would want but could never dare expect. For all these years, recitals were held in this same where students played to receive encouragement or impress their parents. This time, they were playing for Lavonne. It was a testament to the depth of her contribution and to the strength of the community she served.

Most of the performances were classics. LaVonne is not the typical small-town music teacher who was satisfied to teach students to merely produce music. Each lesson was an exercise in mastery. And though most students never reached their complete potential (or anywhere near Lavonne’s level) everyone received a formal education that coupled technique with aspiration. Perhaps that’s why so many former students chose to perform aspirational songs that were outside their comfort zone. It wasn’t about perfection, it was about appreciation, it wasn’t not about being “recital-ready” every day of your life, it was about having the familiarity to sit down at a piano bench and have the fluency to make something beautiful with it.

Each former student spoke a few words before they played to explain their musical selection and to thank their teacher, offering a meaningful context to every piece. Before playing Arabesque #1 by Claude Debussy (by memory), a young former student thanked his teacher for giving him the gift of music, “the thing in my life that brings me the most joy.” Continue reading

You Righted the Wrong Girl

“One-year postscript to You Robbed the Right Girl

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Today is the one-year anniversary form the day my soccer team bought me a brand new computer. With one exception, it is also the longest I have gone without throwing up in 11 years. 5 years ago, I enjoyed a 3 month reprieve during which I truly believed myself to be free and clear and cured. I was wrong– I was far from cured and it was far from over. Of the 4,000 days in this decade-plus of addiction, I probably have passed 3000 of them with one, or two, or three, or a dozen violent acts of purging somewhere between waking and sleeping. For most of this time, a week without vomiting was a heroic and rare occasion. For much of the time, a day without it was impossibly hard. For a long stretch, every meal contained a sacrifice to the toilet and all that was digested was what had been absorbed before I got rid of it and what remained after the mighty tide took the rest away. I was not well.

I have always hated this disease, have always known it was wrong. From the very beginning, I confided to friends and sought therapy and fought against it. But it was deceptively strong and I found I couldn’t control it so eventually I gave in to it. It demanded a lot from me: I lied, I stole, I wasted money and time, I lost my self-respect to keep my addiction alive. For as much as I gave to enable it, it is nothing compared to how much I have given to overcome it. I took medication and years of therapy. I went to rehab. I ended my marriage. I went to rehab again. I quit my job and walked 700 miles alone through the wilderness. I moved to Detroit. I went to rehab again. I got in a relationship. I climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro and flew a kite on the summit to symbolize my recovery. I ended a relationship. I got into a new relationship. I ended that. I got back with my old boyfriend. I broke up with him again. Each of these things played out in a concert of reading, writing, medication, hypnosis, self-intervention and public confession; each of these and in whole or in part was an effort to get well, to overcome my demon, to save my life.

One year ago, at some miserable point along that cycle, I took a routine trip to CVS to buy food for a binge. Returning to my car with a carton of Moose Tracks, a box Cinnamon Toast Cruch and a gallon of milk no more than 3 minutes after I had left it, I encountered a scene that rocked my entire world: broken glass, broken window, missing computer. The platform for all of my writing, the home for all my photos, the means for all my income– gone in a moment. And for what? a $9.00 8,000 calorie high that was destroying my body. Continue reading

just the tip- part 3

consecration

The lone god stood before its lone follower and addressed him in a voice loud enough for the others to hear. “From this day forward, if you want me as your god, you must make a gift of your own flesh to me. You must cut off the sheath at the end of your manhood and offer it to me as a sacrifice. It will be painful, but, with your pain and your foreskin, you will gain total life satisfaction from this day forth, and nothing more shall be asked of you. You will sacrifice yourself, but just the tip. This token shall grant access to my kingdom for you, your wife, and any children you create with what remains of your penis.”

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The people were horrified. “Who would do such a thing to himself?” Can it even be done?” “Thank god my god didn’t make that rule.”

The man could not sleep that night. He saw his lazy neighbors, fat and laughing after long days of leisure but empty inside. He saw his weary neighbors, tense and waning after long days of regulation but solid within. Was it really possible to find a balance? On top of everything else, the man was lonely, he liked the suggestion that he may one day have a wife and children. Perhaps if he offered the tip of his penis, he would find a wife to use the rest of it with.

He did not sleep that night. Solemnly, he rose and watched the sun rise. He entered his small kitchen and selected the paring knife he used to clean fish. He went to one of his lazy neighbors and borrowed some of the strong alcohol that the neighbor drank all day. He went to one of his diligent neighbors and borrowed a rawhide bone that the neighbor sucked on while fasting. Back in his small kitchen, the man cleaned his knife with the alcohol, placed the bone in his mouth and gritted his teeth against it. He stretched out the skin at the crest of his penis, which was flaccid and pliable with fear. He took the knife in his right hand and steadied the blade against the taut skin with an impossibly steady hand. In one deft motion, he swept the knife across the skin as though peeling a carrot. He moved so quickly that the sensation did not reach his brain until the blade re-entered the air. It was over. He fainted and did not wake for two sunsets and two sunrises.

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When he arose, he saw the ring of skin at the tip of the blade before him. It was done. He was numb with physical pain but immensely proud of what he had done. His fingers pinched the gummy skin in his forefingers and laid the prize before the god. Upon seeing a piece of himself in front of himself while realizing that his body magically remained intact, a warm glow washed over him like a blanket of sun on his heart. He fell to his knees and felt glory-of-sacrifice and glory-of-freedom and glory-of-freedom-from-further-sacrifice all at once.

The man created an altar to display the foreskin for all to see, he found a long slender stick and encircled the ring of skin around it. People were fascinated. The men talked about it, they scrutinized their fringed penises while they peed. The women talked about it, they stole glances at their partners’ collared members while they had sex. Could it be that easy? Could it be that hard? In moments of desperation to end the cycle of alternating gods and they considered this new possibility.

There was a woman who was more unsatisfied with her gods than any of the others. She rose one day, resigned to converting, once again, from the god of ease to the god of rules. She dreaded the work that lay before her and the futility of it all. And then she remembered the lone man and his great sacrifice. How great must his god be to merit such an offering? How great must that man be to take such a risk?

She went to the man. She introduced herself. She shared her desperation and hope that there was something more. He welcomed her in. He listened as well. He shared his wisdom and even demonstrated the continued functionality of his remaining genitals. In time, they married and had a family. Their joy was great and their loyalty to their god did not go unnoticed by the others.

Slowly, other men began to pare their penises as well. Each time, they would go to the first man because they wanted to be sure that they cut off as much (but no more than) was required by his god. In this way, they became followers of the new kind of god.

The god’s people had many children with their tipless penises and most of those children de-tipped their penises as well. Each new sacrifice was placed around the stick on the altar until the stack grew tall. Eventually it spilled over onto the ground and piled up all around. No one dared touch the sacred spire so it continued to grow. It was an inspiring testament to the power of this god. When the people tended to this growing throne, constructed meticulously with the ultimate sacrifice from the men of their god’s flock, they knew they were a part of something greater. They felt peace in their minds as they went to sleep at night, after practicing the art of using their unsheathed members, always ready for action.

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The other two gods still remained- indeed, they will always have followers, many of whom continue in the revolving door of utter dedication and utter abandonment- but most of people were monotheists and most of them preferred the god to whom they had already given a gift that could not be returned. They preferred the god that their fathers and their fathers’ fathers had mutilated themselves for. Doing otherwise would undermine the sacrifice of their fathers and their fathers’ fathers and their fathers’ fathers’ fathers– all of whom had removed the foreskin that was now a literal part of the foundation of their god’s kingdom.

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However, it cannot always be so. The time will come when the sacrificial pyre will reach so high that it will approach the swirling outer reaches in the realm of the gods once lost. The throne will make a bridge that bonds the human world to that of the untethered buoyant gods of old.

Up until that point the lone god will face a choice: it could destroy its mighty throne and prevent the return of those other gods, or it could allow the miracle of what its followers had built to come to fruition and risk undermining its own great power. Whether because of ego, humility or both, is not for me to say, but it is foretold that the great god will never destroy its sacred spire.

And  so the day will come when the sacrifices of so many crest the threshold of the great beyond– by just the tip– and the gods of old will be restored to this earth and her people.

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just the tip- part 2

competition

In an effort to acquire more followers, the gods devised ways to set themselves apart from they others. In the old days, there had been no need for sweeping rules because a god and his followers were in constant communication. Each day was filled with advisement and actions and mistakes and adjustments with limitless guidance and patience. But with many followers, it became necessary for gods to come up with a platform, to lay out some basic tenants, and even to establish a brand.

One god mused: “People are noble, they want to work hard for a life of purpose. If I can give them rules that will guarantee a life of meaning, they will flock to me in great numbers.” So it made very strict rules for people about what to eat and when they could make eye contact and what to think at sunset and how to sing a song so that people could focus every minute of the day on the instructions and be sure that their life had meaning. Many people enjoyed the freedom of not having to think for themselves and they did indeed come in great numbers.

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Seeing this, another of the gods said to itself: “That is folly! People are lazy, they would rather think of nothing at all than have to be obedient all the time. If I promise them that to follow me will require nothing of them, they will flock to me in great numbers.” So it offered one hundred holidays per year and encouraged gluttony in all its forms and took away all the rules about what people could do with their bodies (it even offered some suggestions) so that people could know that they were truly unbound. Many people enjoyed the freedom that came with not having to think at all and they came in great numbers.

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These two gods were so successful that, in time, the number of gods dwindled and most humans followed one or the other. Only one other god remained, tethered to the earth by a single devoted follower.

The last of the gods looked at the other gods and puzzled. It had remained non-aggressive, un-competitive for all this time. It believed in inter-deitic harmony, it mourned its now-distant brothers and sisters, and ached over the destructive competition between the other gods.

It watched as the strict god constricted his rules ever tighter, constantly pursuing a greater purity. There was only one day of rest in an entire year and smiling was forbidden. The tired people who followed that strict god became ever more shrunken and weak. In their minds they were confused, the purpose they devoted so much energy to seemed eternally out of reach. If they made a mistake, they lost favor with their god and it was as though their past efforts were forgotten, lost forever. They hoped they wouldn’t die before they had a chance to re-accumulate their liberation. In exhaustion and desperation, many defected to join the ripe people of the lazy god.

It turned then to watch how, on the side of the lazy god, the people regained their color, they unclenched their minds, they smiled and stretched. It saw too how they stared at each other with expressions of constant bewilderment, each moment was a question that never received an answer. As the initial relief faded, the followers began to feel a sense of emptiness and loneliness. What to do? What good was this life if there was nothing to strive for? Nothing to gain? The followers wallowed in malaise, living in a state of physical and mental filth. In time, many defected back to join the strained people of the strict god. The pinched and confused expressions on the faces of the religious refugees haunted the mind of the third humble god.

It knew there was only a matter of time to act before the lone follower died or deserted, and it knew the people of earth were doomed to absurd and empty fates without help. But how to proceed? It could not have the hardest rules, nor the weakest- that had already been done and, anyway, it wasn’t working. There was logic in both, but neither was quite right.

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It said to itself “people are both noble and lazy, if I promise them that following me will mean that their life will have both purpose and comfort, then they will flock to me in great numbers.” It determined that it must make one very strict rule, the ultimate requirement, which, once met, would promise its followers that no broken rule in their future could remove from her favor and guidance. What what should this rule be? Kill your firstborn child? – That was no way to grow your flock. Mate with the foulest person in your village? – That was no way to build your great nation. Cut out your tongue?– That was no way to have praises spoken in your name. It puzzled some more. And finally found an answer.

read the next part of the story here

just the tip- part 1

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conception

Before there were humans, the earth was a massive vacant stage filled with pleasures and tragedies and experiences that went unrealized with no actors to carry them out. The gods of the outer atmosphere yearned for a way to fill the void, but they were formless and could not do it themselves. And so they created humans in order to experience the physical world vicariously through them.

Each god drew from its own essence to make a human life, an expenditure of energy that took eons to accumulate. So for each person, there was a god and for each god, a person. Every person was loyal to his or her god and, in return, the gods tried to make their people happy.

IMG_3634One of the things that made people happy was having sex, so it was not long before they made little humans that needed playing with and caring for and watching over. This created a dilemma, for now there were more humans than gods. And though the gods had created the first humans, the newer humans were only theirs indirectly, so it was not clear to which god each new child belonged. The parents argued and bargained and fretted. The gods pouted and fought and wooed until, ultimately, one of the gods won.

In this way, the one-person-per-god order was utterly disrupted and the era of free-market divinity began. Continue reading

Another One Bites the Dust

Discussion of the demolition of the Park Avenue Hotel, as published by Deadline Detroit

View of the Park Avenue Hotel through the construction fence, shortly before it was demolished

View of the Park Avenue Hotel through the construction fence, shortly before it was demolished

“So devastating, but so controlled.” That was the eloquent observation of Uncle Nate, a homeless man and self-professed Detroit historian who summarized the demolition of the once-beautiful Italian Renaissance, Park Avenue Hotel Saturday morning. To him, the instantaneous obliteration of the massive, 13-story structure at 2643 Park Avenue in the Cass Corridor was a clear reminder of how much easier it is to destroy than to build. This is a truth that Detroit must reckon with every day, which is why it is so important to carefully consider what we allow to be taken away.

New York used to be the city with no past– beautiful edifices were sacrificed with minimal controversy to make way for the new and the better. New Yorkers who disagreed with such practices lamented the loses, but ultimately surrendered to their powerlessness to stop the forces of progress and change, the loss of something so irretrievable as a demolished building. That was, until, the original Penn Station was destroyed and replaced by the current iteration, which is to the old station what cardboard is to marble. Not coincidentally, the removal of Penn Station also made way for the construction of Madison Square Garden, the stale arena which is architecturally stale.

This was the final straw– New Yorkers, historians and architects organized to create the landmark preservation act, which was immediately used to protect Grand Central Station. It has been responsible for saving hundreds of historical structures since. It also paved the way for national preservationist movements of the same form.
Continue reading

Taut

IMG_3435How many times
can we bend till we break?
How much strain can you take?
What’s your tensile strength?

Hold me, and then
Like a kite with no weight
Pull the line nice and straight
Out of sight into space.

If I pluck the string
Will it vibe and erate?
Will it snap in my face?
What is this song’s fate?

Road to Rhode Island

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Written in honor and memory of friend and colleague Steven Kolberg, whose battle with cancer and and dance with life ended today.

We drove to that strange state
packed tight in the car and buckled in
with greeting cards and a somber air.

There in the back yard,
I was surprised that he could see me,
and that he looked like himself
and that the lawn was lush green with life

It had the strange feel of a graduation party combined with a wake:
An uncle here, a high school friend there,
“Amy says hi” and “What’s your favorite beer these days?”

But there was a gurney on the yard with a thick body bag over it,
which turned out to be a kayak but oh my god, the thought!
And there was his comment about not being able to taste sugar or feel temperature or read anymore.
And there was a mountain of pill bottles just across the counter from the spread of submarine sandwiches and brownie platters and veggie dip.

We told stories,
and laughed
and paused awkwardly because what do you say?
This is his last party. Continue reading