A SONNET FOR A CAPITALIST SOCIETY

by Claude Clayton Smith

But woke capitalism is a paper tiger. Companies embrace identity and cultural inclusion as a way to expand their market share to new communities while obscuring their raw political power and the ruthless underpinning realities of shareholder capitalism. Elites on the right, meanwhile, know very well that it is a paper tiger but are more than happy to play along with a shuck and jive that allows them to wield “woke” as a cudgel against the left—and for some voters, it does the vital job of stoking resentment. (Graphic by Brandon Celi) —Lydia Polgreen, The New York Times, July 12, 2023

They call us Homo sapiens but we

are no such thing. Homo consumo is what

we are—dumb dogs that chase our tails with glee

and gladly sniff the rank capitalist butt

that shits in the face that licks it, absolves itself

of sin, and crassly fouls America’s soul.

Got that? Harsh words, I know, knocked from the shelf

without Roget to soften. Life was whole

in early years on planet Earth—when all

survival meant was food and shelter, not

an endless senseless cycle of corporate gall.

Now comes a new human sort—Homo rot.

The economic life that fails to share

will never cure the ills that it lays bare.

Professor Emeritus of English, Ohio Northern University, Claude Clayton Smith is the author of eight books and co-editor/translator of four. His work has been translated into five languages, including Russian and Chinese. His first adventure as a solo editor—Gauntlet in the Gulf: The 1925 Marine Log & Mexican Prison Journal of William F. Lorenz, MD—was published in March of 2023. His degrees include an MFA from the Writers' Workshop at the University of Iowa.

SELECT COMMITTEE

by Claude Clayton Smith

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi announces her appointments to a new select committee to investigate the violent Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol, on Capitol Hill in Washington, July 1, 2021. From left are Rep. Elaine Luria, Rep. Jamie Raskin, Rep. Stephanie Murphy, Rep. Pete Aguilar, Rep. Adam Schiff, Rep. Zoe Lofgren and Rep. Bennie Thompson. Rep. Liz Cheney also accepted Pelosi's invitation to join the committee. Credit: J. Scott Applewhite/AP via abc news.

A singularity occurs but once in time

and space: the Big Bang, for instance;

 

or at a point of infinite mass density

where gravity distorts such time and space

into the final state of matter as it’s

black hole bound;

.

or when the derivative of a given function

of a complex variable does not exist, but

every neighborhood of which contains points

for which the variable does exist.

 

And now comes a new singularity:

a select committee to investigate

whether a house divided against itself

can stand, or if the point at which all

concepts that give life meaning

become irrelevant.

 

Professor Emeritus of English at Ohio Northern University, Claude Clayton Smith is the author of eight books and co-editor/translator of four others. His own books have been translated into five languages, including Russian and Chinese.