Archimedes said,
Give me a long enough lever
And a fulcrum on which to place it
And I will move the world
I respond
Give me a compelling enough metaphor
And a fulcrum on which to place it
And I too will move the world
The following poem makes reference the "Peaches" by Elizabeth Grear.
"First
Night in Phnom Penh" by Carl Nyberg
Elizabeth
Grear wrote
Of
a stripper without rhythm
Failing
to impress
A
truck driver
The
truck driver said,
“She
better not stay
“On
the ground
“Too
long
“Lest
someone cover her in dirt
“Thinking
she's dead”
Elizabeth
Grear wrote,
“Suddenly
the entire place
“Seemed
sad”
And
then I remembered
Sexual
energy collapsing on itself
Into
pathos
Phnom
Penh, 1993
Was
it the first night out?
The
customers worked for the UN
Who
else had money?
The
club was dark, but full
The
girl pretty, probably Khmer
She
dripped wax on her naked body
But
she had the passion, the eros
Of
punching the clock
On
assembly line
No
tease, no flirt
No
anger
Just
depressed indifference
I'd
been in Asia since '89
Sasebo,
Yokosuka, Subic, Hong Kong
Yokohama,
Pohang, Singapore
Guang
Zhou, Tokyo
Penang,
Abu Dabi, Jebel Ali
Pattaya,
Phuket, Dhaka too
I
had seen sex shows
Fucked
hookers
But
this...
I
felt above them
It
wasn't erotic
It
was the form of a sex show
Without
the eros
Made
to appeal
To
peacekeepers
Who
had something sucked out of them
For
having spent time in a country
Colonized,
couped, revolutioned
Brought
to Year Zero
Economics
imposed
Genocide
too
More
war
Invaded
Occupied
Negotiated
And
rebuilt by foreigners who had
Stopped
giving a fuck
If
they ever did
I
felt above them
It
wasn't erotic
It
was pathetic
Sad
for the girl
Sad
for the showmanship
And
sad for the audience
Of
has-been idealists
Executing
the ideals
Of
building peace
In
the post Cold War world
Stressed-out
wrecks to keep the peace
I
didn't apprehend the full reality
That
night
But
I was pretty sure
I
could do better
Than
watching a broken woman
Punch
the clock with wax
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