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The riches of darkness are those which men have made. Kaka`ako condo towers have not been built, nor need they be, a full-page ad reads. Crystal needles, safer investments than meth. To have power is to see the ocean clearly from a great height. Homeless live on the ground; their ocean has less horizon and its waves are taller, like glass buildings shattering. Surfers are needles in its rubbling. He climbed some stairs and knocked. Inside he found a bank of illegal game machines, men perched on stools, gambling. Shell corporations own units for a mafioso, a girl who lives in a dorm, a war criminal. We are hostages to capital, not daring to call its bully out. The word “affordable” is a shell, and so are “human services.” Nut cracked, there's nothing inside except a cave. If a lion lives outside yours, what is there for it to eat? Your daily meditations?

--8 February 2015