I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight!!!

You don't have to tell me
that I have an erratic
personality

and the simple explanation
is that people make me crazy,
and I have a hard time
dealing with it, oh, and
I've also made it easy
to deal with, by
going crazy.

But I'm always working
on it. I like to think
that I'm a little more
rational than other
people, and so when
I realize crazy people
are making me crazy,
and that crazy is crazy,
maybe more than crazy
people are able to handle,
I try to refine it,

be less crazy.

But I have to be crazy,
because crazy people
really ought to know
that they're crazy.

The best way to make
a problem worse
is to pretend
that it doesn't
exist,

but that's exactly
what people most
like to do.

(The second best way
to make a problem
worse is to handle it
poorly.)

(The third way
is to criticize
the people
trying to make
it better
until their efforts
are made null
and void,
exactly what
you hoped for
and what you
were doing
yourself.)

But really,
if I don't
go crazy, then
it's my belief
that it will
only be worse,

so that's why
if I don't go
crazy tonight

I'll go crazy

permanently.

The Pope was on the Jungle Gym

I don't know,
sometimes things
make sense even
when they seem
like they shouldn't.

I work a job
that makes me
miserable,
but think it's
still the best
of what's around
for me right
now, and what's
more, is probably
good for me,
at least in some
small, continuing
way. I just
need to work
myself around
all the problems
that surround me,
the people (whether
customers or
coworkers) chief
among them,
and not so much
the books.

Like I've said,
I don't understand
why a bookstore
is such a big
attraction
for people
who obviously
have little interest
in reading. You
tell someone
enough times,
and they'll think
they really have to.

But then, some
interests are
just different,
irritating,
but different,
and that may
be that.

We'll talk more later.

All Roads Lead to Rome

Rome is the terrible symbol
that suggested a world
united by conquest,
through which civilization
spread but could not be
maintained, where power
corrupted absolutely
and the barbarians
at the gate saw no
great loss in storming it,
where religions ebbed
and flowed, a lasting
treasury bequeathed
to mankind but never
a good opinion,
famous and infamous,
a cautionary tale,
fear spread like fire
in the night, no one
to watch, but everyone
to remark what a tragedy
it is, that no one
could survive.

All the roads lead there still.

The Time Isn't Right

Well, why hasn't it happened yet?
Because the time isn't right.

Why haven't these people come together?
Because the time isn't right.

Any number of things
because the time isn't right.

***

Faith has always been self-centered.
The time has come for a social gospel.

People need to believe
that their lives mean something

to other people, too,
not just to themselves.

There is no such thing as a life
that does not affect any other life.

***

Charity can't be found in my dictionary.
People are worth my time if they allow it.

***

The time isn't right,
but that doesn't mean it won't be.

Memo to the President (Concerning the World We Have Been Building)

Dear Mr. President,

While I am aware
that you campaigned
strongly (and successfully)
on a platform to
keep Americans working
in jobs that have
in recent years been
shipped overseas,
I don't think you
understand what
you were really
arguing.

In a dynamic
eoconomy, jobs
are what current
situations require,
or can allow, or
that are simply
new and better ways
to get things done,
not simply what
keeps people working.


In a dynamic
economy, which is what
we provide those overseas
who get those old jobs,
lives are improved
rather than maintained,
the flow of ideas
continues, and
everyone has a chance
to succeed, despite
how it might initially
seem.

Instead of trying
to retain jobs,
focus on efforts
to develop new ones,
permanent notions
that reflect the fluid
nature of our times,
as indeed all times are.

You don't have to cater
to win the hearts
of your constituents,
despite what it might seem.

You were elected to lead,
you ran because you wanted
to lead, so get into the
business of leading.

That is all I have to say.

Respectfully,

Tony Laplume

The Best of All Possible Worlds is the Real American Dream (But it is Still Only a Dream)

Among the things
we like to say
but maybe don't
really believe
is that the
American experiment
believes that
the best of all
possible worlds
is on our own soil.

I'm not saying that
we are, but
that we have built
ourselves the best
potential to obtain it.

But like all dreams,
it takes more than
thinking it up
and agreeing on it
to make it real;
it's a constant
process, one we're
hardly aware we're
working on, especially
when anyone calls
our current state
into question. Those
are the times we
say it most but believe
it least, when we think
it's all we can do
to keep what we have,
or at least had, because
it sounds good, more
real, easier than
what we dream.

The American Dream
is our greatest
contribution to the world,
our belief that
the best of all possible worlds
is possible, not just for some
but for all, and it begins
here and it ends there,
right around the world.
We confuse it for a sense
of self-reliance, that
success is possible
for those who strive for it,
but that's the old model
we're breaking, the first
steps, when it's no longer
acceptable to merely
suggest only some can succeed,
but that it's our right
in the form of human
community for everyone
to be everything
they want to be.

It's saying that we
don't need to be told
what to do, because
we believe that some day,
maturity won't just
be something you're
expected to have,
but something
to be understood.

Even the schools
will help you find it.

But it is called
a Dream for a reason,
because it is
a vision quest
we are all on,
from here to there.

Maybe Ramen Noodles Aren't Just a Meal I'm Not Thrilled About

I'm beginning to suspect
that, biologically speaking,
I just don't agree with them.

I've been tampering,
though, and maybe
I only have to tamper
some more.

Thing is, I've got
a lot of packets.

Also, I may know
why my parents
didn't specifically
refer to it as
a "care package."