Kennings for the Broligarchy

metaphorical compound words or phrases (such as swan-road for ocean) used especially in Old English and Old Norse poetry

my seeing stone, my glance globe

Even though I have the base impulse (my fingers curled) to scratch its eyes out, the broligarchy who has climbed out of its mothers’ houses — the dark caves of its rooms, lit blue from the games, the games, the stupid games — in hoodies and smoothies and living forever, now sits in a suit and tie, a grinning hydra behind the white-eyed marmalade-cheeked POS with the mouth a backdoor portal, a shadow mouth, a hind hole — your turn, a kenning (look it up) — I know that it (the Hydra, the oligarchy) is bad in bed, sheet strugglers, desire drowners, love limp, and so my fingers uncurl, my eyebrows arch, I am a cloud stepper, a crown dipper, a high seat leaner (I condescend). I am a haze breaker (see them clearly) : the rocket wrangler (round-cheeked and white paste), the prime peddlar (buff and bald), the silicon steward (white haired and thin-lipped), the like lord (ringleted and chained). Yes, bad in bed, the ivory kin.

What I’m thinking about

how different anger feels when you’re 61 (clean, powerful, sparkly) than when you’re 30, 40, even 55 (shameful, scary, ugly)

the tyranny of those who cry for a middle ground

how much better I’ve slept since I plugged in my old analog clock and how warmly its light shines when I do wake in the night

these lines of Yeats’ poem, “Adam’s Curse”:

We sat grown quiet at the name of love; We saw the last embers of daylight die, And in the trembling blue-green of the sky A moon, worn as if it had been a shell Washed by time's waters as they rose and fell About the stars and broke in days and years. I had a thought for no one's but your ears: That you were beautiful, and that I strove To love you in the old high way of love; That it had all seemed happy, and yet we'd grown As weary-hearted as that hollow moon. 

What I’m reading

Trust by Domenico Starnone Someone Like Us by Dinaw Mengetsu Orbital by Samantha Harvey

What I’m reading with my students

1984 by George Orwell Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen The World According to Garp by John Irving The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton Little Women by Louisa May Alcott Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption by Stephen King

What I’m cooking

Lentil soup with Italian sausage, lacinato kale and tomatoes Sourdough bread Cinnamon bread with orange jammy bits and sourdough discard

What I hate

lying  billionaires that the most vulnerable in our country are being attacked football (always, my one true hate) the Christian right crucifixes as jewelry AI reality TV the Republican party the word meta

What/Who I love

a crescent moon the Pacific swan-road low tide books everywhere poetry my book club, Frizzlit Los Angeles my two sons my daughter my beloved (always, my one true love) my sisters my father my girlfriends my dreams the word fury