There
are glorious entertainments in this miserable world, could we find
them out. The
ancient mask looked astonished before the
man sledge-hammered
it. “Authorities worry
the iconoclastic group of ISIS will destroy the ancient city of
Palmyra.” 1981:
tiny
women, shawls
thrown
over
their bent backs, leaned
to kiss icons in Novgorod's
“working
churches.” No one wins the zero-sum game. My second grade teacher's
teacher
was
ninth in line when the Gestapo shot every tenth man. Shorten
the sums: kill every fifth man, because every fourth will betray him.
Then gin up for the sixth. Surely
someone believes your grand idea, but you can't see through their
half-closed
eyes.
The penal colony's deathly invention kept me awake at night. Later I
was
told it's
funnier
in German.
--20
May 2015
1 comment:
This one has me at your first line. What is that impulse to destroy beautiful art and architecture? In the 3rd grade classes I've been visiting, we talk about all the things that have happened to the Mona Lisa, and the children are astonished. Even their occasional tantrums give them no frame of reference for that level of destruction and thievery. The line "second grade teacher's teacher" completely hollowed me out, and the ending is just brilliant.
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