Unlikely 2.0


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Editors' Notes

Maria Damon and Michelle Greenblatt
Jim Leftwich and Michelle Greenblatt
Sheila E. Murphy and Michelle Greenblatt

A Visual Conversation on Michelle Greenblatt's ASHES AND SEEDS with Stephen Harrison, Monika Mori | MOO, Jonathan Penton and Michelle Greenblatt

Letters for Michelle: with work by Jukka-Pekka Kervinen, Jeffrey Side, Larry Goodell, mark hartenbach, Charles J. Butler, Alexandria Bryan and Brian Kovich

Visual Poetry by Reed Altemus
Poetry by Glen Armstrong
Poetry by Lana Bella
A Eulogic Poem by John M. Bennett
Elegic Poetry by John M. Bennett
Poetry by Wendy Taylor Carlisle
A Eulogy by Vincent A. Cellucci
Poetry by Vincent A. Cellucci
Poetry by Joel Chace
A Spoken Word Poem and Visual Art by K.R. Copeland
A Eulogy by Alan Fyfe
Poetry by Win Harms
Poetry by Carolyn Hembree
Poetry by Cindy Hochman
A Eulogy by Steffen Horstmann
A Eulogic Poem by Dylan Krieger
An Elegic Poem by Dylan Krieger
Visual Art by Donna Kuhn
Poetry by Louise Landes Levi
Poetry by Jim Lineberger
Poetry by Dennis Mahagin
Poetry by Peter Marra
A Eulogy by Frankie Metro
A Song by Alexis Moon and Jonathan Penton
Poetry by Jay Passer
A Eulogy by Jonathan Penton
Visual Poetry by Anne Elezabeth Pluto and Bryson Dean-Gauthier
Visual Art by Marthe Reed
A Eulogy by Gabriel Ricard
Poetry by Alison Ross
A Short Movie by Bernd Sauermann
Poetry by Christopher Shipman
A Spoken Word Poem by Larissa Shmailo
A Eulogic Poem by Jay Sizemore
Elegic Poetry by Jay Sizemore
Poetry by Felino A. Soriano
Visual Art by Jamie Stoneman
Poetry by Ray Succre
Poetry by Yuriy Tarnawsky
A Song by Marc Vincenz


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W is for Wiley
by Danielle Grilli

It is interesting in this explosive political climate of who did or didn’t do what, what was said or not said, that the masses actually believe any expulsions at all.

Let’s face it, the Republican convention was an orgy: a wonderful opportunity for the greedy or stupid to pat or kiss one another’s asses depending upon need. Of course, the outside world spoke of protestors arrested for standing around and shoppers arrested for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. What an apt metaphor for the mechanism of our larger American reality.

How can we honestly believe that anything we say or do will be heard at all? I realize this to be a rather pessimistic perspective, but lets face it, our new electronic voting system was designed and manufactured by friends of the Georges. And guess what: they don’t work. And guess what: they’re going to use them anyway. No more messing around with paper, pregnant or hanging chads, no more messing around with verifiable material and of course, there’s not a damn thing we can do about it.

4 years ago it became quite apparent to Americans at large that our voices don’t count. Aside from the devastating fact that under the electoral system our votes really don’t count, there is the reality that we are ruled solely by a dual party system. Consequentially, if one party neglects to call foul on the corruption of another the dirty deed goes unpunished.

This is of course why we have George W. as president today. Other countries laugh at our president, other countries would have laughed Bush Jr. right off the stage 4 years ago. As Americans we are a drop-jawed, slouched-shouldered people. We are raped, lied to and manipulated but ultimately there is nothing to be done about it.

Watching the ‘race’ I am sickened by the propaganda. The new “W is for Women” slogan that dear Karl Rove, the brains behind the bush is now flouting is a blatant insult, especially in the face of the new Republican kick to overturn Roe vs. Wade. The next thing you know the Republicans will be creating an amendment to overturn civil rights and with affirmative action already on their hit list, it wouldn’t be too much of a surprise. No, W is for War, W is for Wiley, W is for White, W is for Worthless.

Ooh yes, Laura Bush is the poster child for the ideal Republican female: quiet, brainless, thin and fertile, just as Condoleezza Rice is the idyllic Republican image of a powerful woman: reliant, pliant, dominated, inept.

Shame on you Laura for bending over and taking it; shame on you Condoleeza for lowering yourself to the status of token black female. Any hope for true equality or freedom for that matter was lost when the Democrats decided to put their heads in the sand rather than stand up against the Republican’s gross misuse of power.

I had the pleasure the other evening of hearing Bush senior call Michael Moore slobby, a telling statement about ultimate assumptions. The present regime is all about the order of things, the order of power and money, the order to the American people to give their power and money to the ‘elected’ keepers of these objects.

Current convictions demand that anything or anyone who threatens the proscribed order is unpatriotic despite the fallacy of such an idea. At some point, conscientious objectors became unpatriotic, but patriotism is not the unquestioning approval of one’s government, negligent or not. American ideals were not borne from such definitions, but or language has apparently changed.

It is a sad day when a political delegate advocates the movement of all American ‘illegals’ to refugee camps, when single mothers are snubbed for accepting state assistance, when the mentally ill are left to fend for themselves on the streets, pushed from the streets of the more financially astute masses. It is a sad day when the elderly are arrested for ‘smuggling’ meds over the Canadian border because they can’t possibly afford American treatment, and the American Illuminati use war as a means to fulfill greedy tendencies. It is a sad day when the very philosophy that founded America, the right to liberty, freedom, and the pursuit of happiness is undermined by government itself under the guise of ‘protective’ patriot acts and other evils.

In his poem “Howl’ Allen Ginsberg spoke of ‘Moloch, ’ the evil, the consumer of children:

What sphinx of cement and aluminum bashed open their skulls and ate up their brains and imagination?
Moloch! Solitude! Filth! Ugliness! Ashcans and unobtainable dollars! Children screaming under the stairways! Boys
sobbing in armies! Old men weeping in the parks!
Moloch! Moloch! Nightmare of Moloch! Moloch the loveless! Mental Moloch! Moloch the heavy judger of men!
Moloch the incomprehensible prison! Moloch the crossbone soulless jailhouse and Congress of sorrows! Moloch whose
buildings are judgment! Moloch the vast stone of war! Moloch the stunned governments!
Moloch whose mind is pure machinery! Moloch whose blood is running money! Moloch whose fingers are ten armies!

Allen my dear, has anything really changed?


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Danielle Grilli is a poet and visual artist, as well as the poetry editor for The Muse Apprentice Guild.