Two Poems at Metazen

Two of my poems, 'Occupy Everything' and 'Poem for Sitting in Panera,' were published by Metazen.

'Occupy Everything' was written in response to the 2009 tuition-hike protests against the University of California education system. 'Demand Nothing, Occupy Everything' was a common refrain for the demonstrators at the time, and for the earlier NYU sit-in of the same year.

That fact that similar events aren't happening on a weekly basis puzzles me. At OSU, after a drastic rise in tuition rates less than eight months ago, President Gordon Gee is making vague rumbles about charging students even more for their education at a public land-grant university, whose initial students (2 per congressional district) were not charged fees. And yet, I neither see nor hear any popular resistance to Gee's idea, or, for that matter, to the inevitable statewide austerity measures to be enacted by the new Kasich administration. The consistent lack of resistance (which makes U of C and NYU seem like memorable news stories when they should be normal incidents) makes me wonder if the reason my generation is  turned off by political demonstrations is that we are too consumed by resisting ourselves through our eating/personality disorders, poor self-esteem, social anxiety and depression. That we're too self-conscious for social conscience.

After all, how can you 'occupy everything' when you don't even like yourself? And if you don't like yourself, are you likely to think you should stand-up for yourself to begin with?

'Poem for Sitting in Panera' was written, sitting in a Panera, after being turned down for a slew of positions, a.k.a every day of my life. I had no idea why I was in a Panera, and no idea what was to become of my life - only cognizant of upward mobility's ephemeral nature.

'Occupy Everything' and 'Poem for Sitting in Panera' are in my upcoming chapbook, Austerity Pleasures, to be published by Monster House Press, about recessionary economics and receding relationships.

In other news, Haggard & Halloo signal their intention to review Assuming Size. 

Pop Serial mentions my poems on Metazen.