| Starpoet Newsletter Vol. VIII, No. XXVII |
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| News - Newsletters | |
| Written by Lisa Jain Thompson | |
| Sunday, 01 July 2007 | |
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The
Starpoet
Newsletter
Vol. VIII, No. XXVII
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^^\/\/\/\/^^ <><><><><> These last few days
I have not been
Much of a lover
I was adrift
Inside my fugue
Floating through headaches
Unfocused and barely here
You watched over me
Made sure I was safe
Knowing time would heal
My drifting mind
And return me To this world
Lisa Jain Thompson c. 2007 C. E.
 __/\/\/\/\__
^^\/\/\/\/^^ a busy week: work, jury duty, and trips away ending with a fugue and thick dripping aura.
__/\/\/\/\__
^^\/\/\/\/^^ The summer flood has innundated Washington, even during commuting hours
Summer Colors
Gaggles of tourists,
Each with two children And a well used baby stroller;
Mothers looking harried
-- Young women on vacation—
Fathers, looking bored,
Who can’t wait to get home;
The American Family at leisure,
Hitting the museums
And the National Zoo,
With a scattering of monuments
Added for patriotic value: I wonder where people of color go When they come to Washington In the summertime? Lisa Jain Thompson
Riding the Metro June 2007 __/\/\/\/\__
^^\/\/\/\/^^ meanwhile the weather ain't getting no better, makes you wonder why they're all here
June Ugly
The air sucks
The body clean of breath, Layering the skin With a warm, clinging dew
That sticks clothes To dripping flesh
And inundates the synapses
With deep, black strap lethargy. Lisa Jain Thompson
June 2007 __/\/\/\/\__
^^\/\/\/\/^^ You have been requested to serve on a jury.
Service on a jury is one of the most important
Responsibilities that you will exercise
As a citizen of this Commonwealth.
It is your responsibility to listen to the evidence
Presented at a trial, decide the facts,
Apply the facts to the law
As instructed by the judge, And render a fair and impartial verdict.
Commonwealth of Virginia
Fairfax County Circuit Court The answerbook for Jury Service
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^^\/\/\/\/^^ the jury
The Jury Chronicles
1. We, Jury A couple six dozen, Today’s jury pool, Quietly separate In the waiting room; Long stretches of boredom, After checking in And being counted, While the perps and lawyers Debate causes in the hallways. We seem to be split evenly
Between men and women; All the men seem to be professional, The women, a mix culled from life. Most of us are close to forty, Give or take a decade or two; All of us reading agéd magazines, Talking quietly, As we wait for the clerk To cue us in On what cases we have drawn From today’s court calendar. 2. Material I’m torn between not wanting To be called at all for trial And the desire for something juicy That might inspire A chapbook full of immortal writings Or, at the very least, Amuse me enough To possibly stay awake. 3. The Waiting Three jury pools gone, Vanished into the Judges’ chambers Four floors above the jury dungeon; We are all barcoded and labeled So that the lawyers may know The depths of their perspective audience, Their performances dependent On their ability to read us. Their clients,
Who think this is all about them, Are sadly mistaken: It’s all lawyers and jury from this point, With the judge Simon Cowelling The course of the action. Guilty or not guilty,
There is little the defendant can change, He has no standing other than the one We will finally decide is his. 4. The Jury Club Deadly silence between the Jury calls -- Rustle of newspapers, The turning of pages, The crunch of pretzels Making do until lunch time -- No dismissal, No release, No requirement To be present at trial: An extended High School Detention Without the requirement for hall passes. 5. Hope Springs Rumors of a trial, Foreign child smugglers, Death, torture, Russian slave traders; A jury comes back dismissed, Sent away, Turned down: More names are drawn, Sent up, As the rest of us exchange glances. A sheriff lingers,
Gossiping with the clerk, Firing our curiosity -- If this group is rejected also, Will one of us be selected? Will I be on a capital jury?
6. Coda Four trials, all settled, Before any one was impaneled; One postponed Until some time later, Another Jury, another day. We all say goodbye,
Exchange Facebook addresses, And go home, Free for another three years. Lisa Jain Thompson Fairfax County Circuit Court June 2007 __/\/\/\/\__
^^\/\/\/\/^^ Sequence of a Trial
Commonwealth of Virginia
Fairfax County Circuit Court The answerbook for Jury Service 1. Selection of a Jury
2. Opening Statements 3. Testimony of witnesses and presenting of evidence 4. Selection and preparatiuon of jury instructions 5. Jury instructions presented to the Jury 6. Closing Arguments 7. Jury deliberations 8. Verdict of Jury -- None of us got by #1 but we did each get $30.
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^^\/\/\/\/^^ taking on the dumb ox
The Devil You Say
God don’t make no mistakes,
No screw-ups, no birth defects;
So if I am transsexual, God made this way,
And gave me a brain, Provided me the meds and science To go on with my life
As He intended.
God don’t make no mistakes,
So if His religious denounce me,
Condemn me as immoral
And an abomination of creation,
They must be of the opinion,
That their god did this to punish me
For some sin of my fathers
In the garden of their beliefs.
God don’t make no mistakes,
So the preachers must need be wrong:
God gave me the intellect, The churches would deny;
God gave me the medicines,
The churches would decry;
God gave us our brains and science
To glorify his works and goodness. To not use what is freely given
Would be to refuse the talents He has bestowed; To remain mired in righteous ignorance
Places the church above the god Who rules over all. God don’t make no mistakes,
Even an agnostic can concede that. Lisa Jain Thompson
June 2007 __/\/\/\/\__
^^\/\/\/\/^^ I've tried 'em all, I really have,
and the only church that truly feeds the soul, day in, day out, is the Church of Baseball. -- Susan Sarandon Bull Durham __/\/\/\/\__
^^\/\/\/\/^^ continuing on down the tracks
Thunder
If we were truly of the spirit,
If a light does really dwell within us,
We would not fear what science tell us
About this temple we call our body, Nor would we fall prey
To superstition and mystic promises, For we would be one with the spirit
And know who and what we are.
Those who do not admit
They exist in this physical world,
Who deny what is observed
By brain and eye,
Chose to ignore the spirit
And embrace the darkness:
They would kill the light That lives within.
Lisa Jain Thompson
June 2007 __/\/\/\/\__
^^\/\/\/\/^^ reading the news
 Grotesque
Ann Coulter,
That bitch,
How dare she say that?
Don't she even know The basics of good taste?
You'd think the media would notice
How much she sounds like the left,
With different nouns and using adjectives
Brim-filled with adolescent hate.
Fucking wingnuts all.
Lisa Jain Thompson
June 2007
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^^\/\/\/\/^^ Thunderstorms and baseball,
A perfect match: If the batters don't hit one, Maybe the lightning will.
LJT
June 2007
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^^\/\/\/\/^^ from the middle of the fugue
Sentence Frag
Sentence fragments,
Like some fungus-induced semi-coma,
I drift,
Seconds, time,
Clouded daylight,
A rain-tumbled desert,
Sliding past,
Chocolate cherried Joshua Trees
Encapsuled in smoke sleep, I wisp, inhale,
And continue drifting. Lisa Jain Thompson
June 2007 __/\/\/\/\__
^^\/\/\/\/^^  __/\/\/\/\__
^^\/\/\/\/^^ some starpoet to round things off
What Does God Need With A Starship?
We will search among the stars of our galaxy
For the only answer that matters, And if, millennia from now, we still do not know,
We will go beyound the rim
To seek what must be there. We have a universe before us,
And all the time might still exists, To learn what we need to make this world,
These many worlds, continue and be reborn When the stars grow dull and light itself surrenders To the dead boredom of perfecty symmetry. Lisa Jain Thompson
June 2007 __/\/\/\/\__
^^\/\/\/\/^^  Oh, by the way,
I've been selected for promotion
By the Army
(I'm a civilian employee)
-- So much for stereotypes
And anti-government rhetoric
That berates the powers that be,
White, male, and conservative
As they sometimes are.
Army Strong.
(now if they only could field a decent football team) __/\/\/\/\__
^^\/\/\/\/^^ PEACE
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^^\/\/\/\/^^ |
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