Ashphalt Astronauts

On a Lucky Star bus in the Bronx.
I switch to a ball point pen.
The sloppy purple Pilot G2 produces
unmanageable letters and words.
You've got to have a Bruce Lee grip
on your Moleskin to write anything
with a Chinese immigrant at the wheel.

At dusk, the Expressway is free
from its usual cluster fuck of
rancid trash trailers,
parades of smoggy eighteen wheelers
and cursing commuters from Long Island.

The sun sets behind Manhattan.
All of the icons and skyscrapers
are mountains carved from
a sea of Blood Orange clouds.

I wonder if the City's sidewalks
will produce a moment for me tonight.
A-this is really happening-top of the world-
unforgettable moment mass-produced
by a chaotic kinetic City of energies.

And yes, you are most definitely expected
to act out and rage on the street corners
tucked between Bushwick warehouses.
The thick rimmed souls sip wandering glasses
and sweat satisfaction all over one another.

These peacocks crave it all.
Most peacocks need the attention.
All peacocks belong in a flock of peacocks.
Some peacocks are really pigeons.

Elsewhere-away from the L trains,
Greenwich groceries and trampled concrete-
there is not as much of everything, everywhere.

Pick a pace, select a speed, vibe a vibe.
Rampant fetishization of capitalism by consumer tribes.
Everyone's a photographer with F-Stop eyes.
The City is a Space with asphalt astronauts inside.

RwmG

Raging

Raging

Raging
can be such an
adrenaline rush.

It's for
the creative
ones, the fortunate.

These
blue hearts all scream
out in dreamy peace.

Everyone
can hear our cry
from way over there.

Further
that we push-the
better-cus' we love!

And we
fill our hard drives
with Otis Redding.

And we
drink up and dance
when the ice thaws.

And we
do use our heads
when it really counts.

RwmG

drifting-very emotional

Lately, I've been drifting-very emotional.
Things like unemployment, social injustice, authentically living and dying.
Tears fill my eyes just enough for me to notice their presence and shoo them away.
Those powerful moments are reserved for the listeners of humanity.
As my first decade as a man approaches, I both love and fear the world's prospects-
that much i cannot hope to control.
However, I do not lie afraid of my life's prospects-
that much i understand.
I squint my eyes closed to try and feel the future coming at me head on.

RwmG

We Want to Wonder "Why?"

well, we want to wonder "why?"
why lights burn out in minds and in the sky
why some of our love pours and some runs dry
why success or failure outweighs the try
why some dames eat orchids and men crave guys
why we follow socialists, capitalists, and Bear-oh my
why pot remains criminal but poisoned tobacco is a legal buy
why financial giants, Populist despots and Dick love to watch their comrades die
why it's harder to be authentic then it is to be sly
why it takes years of good men to slow down a government's lies
why greed and fear toss ice caps into furnaces to fry
why "it's the too-huge world vaulting us, and it's goodbye"
why bright lights, glowing sticks, and large breasts catch our spinning eyes
why they broke their backs lifting Moloch to Heaven on high
why some human beings don't have 20 dozen reasons to want to survive
why pharmacies can cure and cause us to cry
why all therapy isn't musical-vibrant and Live

RwmG

Lords of Light

In a flash, love was made by two white elephants,
with wild bouts of Chantix induced anti-nicotine tendencies and lucidity.
Exactly how long is your effect's duration, Pill Generation?
Long enough for breakfast in bed-to burst the Yolk of Heaven
and rage against the dying of the light,
until that other pupil remains wider than its ordinary brother.

Things are well kept and controlled here my Brahman brother.
Nothing repeats itself in this hollow space besides the elephants
and freedom references and fluorescent light.
And as I so deemed I dreamed, missing my lucidity.
No one mentioned that there are apples covering the ground in heaven,
left partially consumed-but not yet browning-for a generation.

It's more like the High Fructose and make believe generation.
These thoughts i treat like Ishmael and others like his little brother.
Rhythms of silence can make a moment heaven.
The solitudes of the flesh are the skin of elephants.
Sin is a state of being known by those devoid of necessary lucidity.
Sons of the Lords of Darkness replaced by the Sons of the Lords of Light.

RwmG

Between Arlington and Austin

A traveling stranger
taught me to move
my feet to keep
from falling into that circle
of anxiety--insane,
revolving,
automatic,
directionless.
I would peer into his
strange eyes--shrinking,
widening, capturing, gleaming
like some purple
magenta square stone
long lost at home.

Now, as my mother sings
and firefly rain
falls all around my
hopeful excitement;
I wonder fully and
give half-assed affection
to those dispersed women
slowed by misunderstandings,
men mulligans,
and mazes.

And the road can be cold,
and the road can be hot,
but the road has my trust.
Be sure to miss the God rush,
catch the Incident,
bring out your Dead,
know shades of Grey,
spread Rothbury,
miss the Moon, hug Hubble,
embrace Barry's change,
learn from Yasgur's
and read Songs of the Doomed.

Already, I miss that last
bite, sip, or whiff
of my life's morning
sun. Bright and golden
are the good times
we hold so close
that memory is our skin
is our thinning hair
is our racing heart
is our jeweled teeth
is the cracks
of crusty lip that we
bite, tear, chew
and digest unto our
bodies again and again.

RwmG

Be There

Some of us on this breathing sphere
see things slip and sink.
Some of us on this wet rock
see things climb and expand.

In a polite town is where I reside.
I move and get down to the beats inside,
and live to dream about a worldwide Shakedown-
where hearts and eyes gleam and honest reality is found.

Some of us on this breathing sphere,
hope for shortcuts and sedation.
Some of us on this wet rock,
hope for equality and pretty peace

It beats me how they can continue to fall down
this circling Ferris wheel of anxious frowns.
Roads are often dark and wide, lights bright,
for the old and inexperienced alike.

Some of us on this breathing sphere,
are playing with reverence to our mistakes
Some of us on this wet rock,
are setting off explosions in our minds.

My hand rests upon my finally shut eyes.
At this stubborn sudden moment i realize
I've been getting the shakes and permahigh
and I see now how far out Saturn lies.

Some of us on this breathing sphere,
want to be gone.
Some of us on this wet rock,
want to be there.

RwmG

Melt

Sometimes I fell like they're just trying to eat me.
These with their hearts scattered.
"I need you" today
"I don't need you" this way.

Knock my head, pain my liver to make it sleepy.
Compassionate dreams heal--for some it can't matter.
I'll forgive you someday,
How can we believe a thing we say?

Who knows what instrument fits right in this mix?
It's an undeniable process we venture upon.
But we focus on our breathing,
try and melt this forward thinking.

It is safe to dance with family pics,
but perilous tongue to tongue on this lawn.
Upgrade you love, but not so often,
roll into others arms with caution.

RwmG

Years of the Yuppie: The Personal Consumer (4/8/09)

The election of Ronald Reagan as President of the United States in 1980 resulted in a comprehensive shift in American values and lifestyle. During his two terms in office, the Reagan Revolution marked society’s rejection of ‘60s counterculture, activism, and liberalism. Reagan’s “Greed is Good” initiative encouraged Americans to indulge in their own livelihood, prosperity, and material gains. Wall St. became the generator of an advantageous new American economy; while personal consumption and spending proved to be a rewarding means for the American individual to feel as though they held a stake in both their own lives as well as the state of the nation. For the first time in their lifetime, a younger generation of Americans felt an encouraging feeling that “things were looking up” in the 1980s. The introduction of the American Young Urban Professional-commonly known as the Yuppie-into society created a new breed of American. The ‘80s proved to be not only the Reagan Decade but also the decade of the Yuppie. Jay McInerney’s 1984 novel, “Bright Lights, Big City”, depicts the plight of the yuppie from within the garish metropolis of Manhattan. The rise of the Yuppie produced a new understanding of what it meant to uphold and strengthen one’s personal identity in society, and what it meant to be a consumer in America.

The Yuppies embodied an American cultural phenomenon—the “Me Generation.” Many baby boomers—who participated in and experienced the ascension of an idealistic and communal ‘60s counterculture—found themselves faced with the harsh reality of their own independent well being by the 1980’s. These people “‘chilled out’ during the 70’s, compromised, dropped much of the social commitment, and began to become—a yuppie.” Yuppiedom did not simply occur by means of some external factor. Instead, it transpired through a heightened sense of self-indulgence in their personal lives. Unlike, the “Man in the Grey Flannel Suit” and the Nuclear families of the 1950’s, the yuppies adopted a new system of middle class living that was not centered on the family and the home. “They have rejected the suburban values of their parents in favor of living where the action is.” The central character in McInerney’s novel lives the standard ‘80s New York City yuppie lifestyle marked by luxurious tastes and desires, and a promising profession. His yuppieness is a direct product of his migration from the Midwest to the City. “You began to feel that you were no longer on the outside looking in. When you were growing up you suspected that everyone else had been let in on some fundamental secret which was kept from you.” The baby boomers and yuppies no longer felt a need to exist within the margins of society; now they could focus on decisions in regards to their own life’s direction.
For many people, being a yuppie meant turning their aspirations inward. “Much of the energy and optimism and passion of the ‘60’s seems to have been turned inward, on lives, careers, apartments, and dinners.” As hard working Americans, the yuppies believed that they owed it to themselves to amass wealth and consistently satiate their personal desires. Constantly aspiring for more from oneself and never being satisfied. “Your presence here is only a matter of conducting an experiment in limits, reminding yourself of what you aren’t.” For most yuppies, every decision, every move became inherently calculated in a selfish way. Their ideas and work became for the self. They no longer focused their interests on society, those people close to them, or some struggling oppressed whole. By rejecting their aged hippy political ideologies, the yuppies “converted ‘our thing’ into ‘my thing’.” This shift in concentration of the yuppie’s concern can be seen in how the protagonist of “Bright Lights, Big City” reacts when an old woman is accosted on the train by another man. “You would like to see if she’s all right, but at this point it wouldn’t do much good. You sit down.” Focusing their attention on their material lives and the prospect of upward mobility, the yuppies popularized an apathetic American mood. “What Yuppies have discovered is nothing less than a new plane of consciousness, a state of Transcendental Acquisition, in which the perfection of their possessions enables them to rise above the messy turmoil of their emotional lives.”

Perhaps the most lasting impact that the yuppies had on American society can be found in the economics of the “Reagan Decade”. Paired with Reagan’s supply side economics, tax cuts, and limits upon the federal government; the yuppie’s devotion to new ideals of consumption drastically changed American economics. “The yuppie bind of having to work hard to afford the kind of luxuries that make hard work possible.” The yuppies wanted more and more out of their material lives, so they frivolously worked the most profitable jobs they could attain. As they made more money, they spent more money—becoming trapped in a cycle of BMW car payments and penthouse leases. “A man’s home after all, is his castle.” For McInerney’s main character, the concept of a home exceeded traditional modest ideas. Yuppies saw their homes, their cars, their clothes as a means to show the world how perfect, clean, and attractive their life was. “Yuppies like to think of themselves as having: an ability to perform deftly, technological sophistication, elegant looks.”

As their level of spending increased, the yuppies’ new-age consumption became a model in which the corporate market had to adhere. “Yuppies are challenging the ossified corporate structures, just as they once challenged the sacred traditions of academia, and forcing them into more imaginative solutions.” An entirely new popular area of consumption emerged—that of the private sector. “Even those who don’t meet all the statistical criteria my find their lives and spending habits to a large degree falling into patterns set by the Yuppies.” By 1984, a trickling down of the privatization of everyday life became commonplace amongst business and society alike—with the private sphere being seen as a “better” alternative to the public sector. The average American consumer suddenly had extra cash to spend on a steak dinner, or a blouse from Bloomingdales. “You had rent covered, you had your favorite restaurant on MacDougal where the waitresses knew your names and you could bring your own bottle of wine.” The yuppie’s new model of consumption provided American’s in the ‘80s with a belief that anyone could get rich, or at least live rich.

The impact of the yuppie upon the future of the American economy did not limit itself strictly to the role of the consumer. Yuppies that made enough to have extra money left over after satisfying their need to spend often looked for new opportunities to make money. The “Reagan Decade” embodied the rise of the small investor. In “playing the stock market”, the yuppies discovered a means in which they could gain some influence over the economy itself. “They make money from money, manipulate markets for their own profit, and provide highly skilled and rewarded service central to a capitalist economy.” Additionally, the ‘80s became the period in which the popular American entrepreneur surfaced. More and more, Americans used their affluence to fill their pockets with new money from new personal businesses. “They all have enterprises on the side, typically a little something in real estate.”

In the late ‘80s, the American yuppie saw its popularity slide, becoming an object of scorn—their reputation ruined by an obvious increase in immoral business decisions made by well-known yuppies. However, the yuppie ideal lived on. The impact of yuppiedom on American society fueled a period of expansive economic growth that-until very recently-led the nation into a prosperous and enchanting couple of decades. Even amidst our current economic malaise, American’s still embody the yuppie essence. American’s today continue to strive for the best possible way to live their lives, placing a special importance on efficiency. One would be hard pressed to find Americans within today’s society who does not value their own well being in one or more manners introduced by the yuppies.