Udaipur

Po Boy Views

By

Phil LaMancusa

Awake

Or

Imagine That

            There are few differences between then and now; the differences between the haves and the had nots of yesterday and today; the repurposing of the real and of real estate; the entirety of the mad dash clash of past, present, future and the ones who’ve moved ahead and the ones that have fallen behind. “They are the same people only further from home, on a freeway fifty lanes wide on a concrete continent spaced with bland billboards illustrating imbecile illusions of happiness” (Ferlinghetti).

            I’ve changed over the years of my lives, escaping from projects and parents, side stepping prospects, prisons and poisons, pursuing professions and being always on the cusp of the finer positive points of prosperity; relying on personal progress for a peace/piece of my mind that is being continually blown by me the hungry hunter constantly being overtaken by them, the successful gatherers. Fast women, slow horses, unreliable sources.

            Folks my age, our experiences lost in the space of time and the lessons and larks that lead us from relative comfort to an eventual downsizing retirement home abandonment with one foot in assisted living and the other avoiding the slippery slope of a six foot hole; all the while hoping that the next one to go is not another one that we love or worse, we ourselves. You didn’t know me when I was a younger man and I won’t know you as an old person; the only thing an old man really wants to get is older; to get older, all you have to do is live long enough. Blah blah blah.

            Million dollar condos and high priced essentials; disposable blade shaving with a brush and a bar of soap while my taxes line the pockets of manic mansplainers telling me how good they have made life for me and mine; property values continue to become fatter and my pockets leaner; my spirit contentiously swimming against the undertow of historic mendacity concerning the salvation of my eternal soul, as if the promise of heaven will fill the bellies of hungry children while the rich donate to rebuild cathedrals dedicated to a penniless carpenter’s son who died for their sins. The picture of the ragged man sitting on his milk crate at the intersection; his sign reading: “Anything Helps, God Bless”; a benediction for a brass farthing. “Never treat a brother like a passing stranger; always try to keep the love light burning” Leon Russell

            The rent for one month of an apartment two blocks from where I grew up would have paid our living expenses for about three years and that would have been for a family of six. Where does the time go and where does that kind of money come from?

            The great recession of 2018 is coming back to bite us in the behind as the bubble is bursting while our credit cards get maxed out trying to rob Peter to pay Paul and finding out that Peter has been financially kicked to the curb; even the low spark of high heeled boys cannot escape the percentage we’re paying while we’re living beyond all our means; the man in the suit has just bought himself a golf course with the profits he’s made on our dreams. The sound in the distance is not a dog barking but the laughter of Anubis taking our coins for our ride with Charon.

            We’re witnessing islands of plastic debris as mega companies use solar power to make fracking less expensive. They rape and we must pull up our pants and stumble on being the last generation to walk freely on this planet; the impotence of our good intentions paving the road to hell.

            I have a neighbor who walks to the bus stop once a week to go to Walmart; he rests on the stoop next door to us and happily explains how he’s looking forward to celebrating his ninety-fifth birthday. May we all be so fortunate; from our mouths to God’s ears; walking to the bus ride to Walmart amid the chaos confusion and detritus of a collapsing planet; walking to the bus for the ride to Walmart.

Where does it end, or rather, when did this begin? It began when we let toys spoil us; when we took the proud boasting of our elders struggles as a weakness we could overcome by inventing something to make life easier to be indolent, so that we could make extra time to glut ourselves with more material things; buy it, don’t bake it; don’t make it… take it.  Elect a clown and enjoy the circus. What fools we mortals be..

            Histrionically speaking we are screwed as a people and as a planet while millions watch television like sailors at a strip club hoping that the hero on the white horse is really really real. You’re gonna be part of the 60% of eligible voters that make it to the polls to elect the biggest bull manure deliverer? Or are you?

            People running for office will promise you whatever they think will get them elected and once in office find out that they have pitiful little power to follow through on their words. The government does not run this country and the people do not hold sway with their elected officials.  It’s big money that runs things and we just suck it up.

            Important decisions should be made by the people who will have to live with them, otherwise we have to admit that we’re all pawns and live with that.

           

Dirty Words

Po Boy Views

By

Phil LaMancusa

Another S.O.B Story

Or

Dirty Words

            This article  is about the dirty words we use every day, we’ll start with Political Correctness--those dirty words---they bring up images of badly dressed, weird, tree hugging, pinko-liberal, vegetarian Hippie wannabe freaks that take great pleasure in telling the rest of the world what we’re doing wrong and shunning all who err. They think that the world would be so much better if everyone rejected their avarice tendencies and replaced them with logic, empathy, and focused attention contemplating our f**king behavior. End of story, case closed.

            The PC Armies want you to recognize where and how your food is raised as well as what we should and shouldn’t put in our bodies; they’re for recycling, precycling, bicycling, no animal testing of your girlfriend’s favorite make up products and comfortable shoes. They don’t like us littering, spitting on the sidewalk, feeding our pets food containing pork spleen, using plastic at all or driving anything but electric cars the size of Stuart Little. They just don’t get the need for assault weapons, trailer hitches, drive-thru daiquiri shops and sending the planet to hell in a hand basket. Go figure.

            Socialism, another dirty word, unless you’re talking about Social Security, then we’re okay. Social Democrats are the worst. They do things like preach tuition-less higher education, an elevated minimum wage, free health and legal services; heck, they’ll even change the brake lights on your car (free) while cooking you up a vegan burger to be served with fresh fruit and bottled health drinks. They tell me that ‘the one percent’ has more wealth than everyone else while paying zero taxes. Gee, I don’t know who these one percent guys are. Are they those politically connected fat cats that I read about with charges of corruption, immorality, mendacity and sexual predation being leveled against them?

            The Cosmopolitan Elite are worser. Described as a powerful upper class that lives in our country but their primary economic loyalty is to the global community; in other words, a portion of our already successful punks that would rather trade, manufacture, purchase and support other countries’ goods, services and labor over the good old U.S.A.’s; so that they may make, save and profit from that totally un-American activity. They consider themselves ’citizens of the world’ and chase profits regardless of where they might come from. Running shoes from Thailand, fresh garlic from China, pasta from Turkey, potato chips from Canada, and dish towels from Egypt. Car parts, hair extensions, cheap cell phones, umbrellas and neon colored condoms. We hold them accountable not only for job loss in this country but for dummying down our consumer taste, mentality and independence by supplying cheaper, over packaged and useless convenience products.

            And worser yet are Passionate Conservatives, Indifferent Economists, Militant Environmentalists, Free-wheeling Capitalists, Old School Southern Egalitarians, Political Comedians, Media Masturbators, Stifling Educators, Liberal-Nationalists and Boundary Building Rounders. They want you to follow them; they want you to join them; they want your vote.

            Sexuality. There’s another dirty word and you’ll get your helping of cosmic debris if you try an FYI in mixed company. You’ll come away with a Hetro-LGBTQ+ PTSD-OMG why didn’t I keep my mouth shut trauma migraine. He, she, they, gender neutral or gender bender; androgynous, amoral, asexual; you’re allowed to watch it happen, but you cannot touch or talk about it. Face it, soft porn and sex that sells surrounds us (a hundred different combinations of lurid distractions) and unless we turn a blind eye to its insinuences and innuendos we become the pervs at the peep show. Enough to make a bishop blush and that’s saying something that we’re not allowed to say anything about; stop looking at my ass, breasts, face, neck, tattoos and for god’s sake keep your filthy thoughts to yourself! Do not linger on the lingerie ads and don’t judge a creature of couture by their crotch; you don’t deserve a seat at that table.

            The ‘E’ word (Environment, Ecology, Energy): Man, talk about a buzz buster. There is not one recognizable sane person that can take that subject to its complete and utter conclusion without risking crucifixion and if you explore that dirty word in mixed company, you’ll see how close or far another person’s personal boundary is set. For example: if I say that the world’s problems (ALL of them), could be eliminated if we put the planet’s health first. Conflict, hunger, greed, pestilence, fires, floods, heartbreak and psoriasis…(ALL Gone!), would you think that I was the Messiah? If I told you that all you would have to do, to save the world, is to pause before taking ANY daily action and ask yourself: “is this good (or not) for the planet and its health”, woulds’t thou abidith unto me? Hell no, you’d have me committed!

We’re a selfish, spoiled, lazy, take the easiest-way-out lot; if gas is cheap enough, all those “E” concerns head for the dustbin.    

Race and religion and specific body parts expressed in colloquialisms: this is where the rubber meets the road. As an evolved, mature biped you have to keep an eye on your somewhat unnatural tendency to take things subjectively, i.e. with prejudice or bias. In other words, if someone through their ignorance or bliss offends you, your reaction shouldn’t be: “Why, that low life, inbred, imbecile, sugar-tit sucking, skeeter-peter, red-headed step-child, gone ass, kangaroo humping, Satan worshiping, carpet weaving, rag head, frog eating, jungle hamster; may his bastard children grow into cross dressing hermaphrodites with awful fashion sense”!

This is where you should bite your tongue and say to yourself “Whoa, that’s a little harsh”, I mean, ‘with awful fashion sense’? He’s just another Uber driver, right? Give him a break, he didn’t complain about that stupid tee shirt you’re wearing, did he? Check yourself before you wreck yourself; gargle with cleanser and never, ever use those awful, awful dirty words, ya wanker.