Sine qua non by Mussmann

When they entered the room it was all okay—they was the sine qua non of the space—-we could now relax——

The essential was now here—like the thread on the button—a small thing—but an essential thing—like butter on bread or the lace in they’s shoes—yes this is the sine qua non of the time that they witness—yet they wanted to wrestle with time and space and gender and things called equality—this was hard to come by—as things became less——they become more—more and less the scale was the tool that made a deal real—yet it always seemed to weigh in the fascists favor—even when blind justice was tipping to the right—her dress had lost the luster of gown—now she looked a bit thin and dowdy— Marat get out of your tub and make a revolution again—this time answer the door with a security guard that can hold their own—no you say no you say—no 2nd chance—Charlotte wins the day in your play—and the French move to a revolution they are still trying to make a reality—sine qua non the weather women are telling us it will snow—blades of change—justice is a wreck—Endurance is stuck in the ice on the way to Antartica as Shackleton searches for the South Pole….ho! ho! dogs turn to the left before it is too late —we are on the cliff side of life—

we they us struggle with these adventures that have so few places to hold—call Ishmael—call Lear—call Coriolanus—see what they know—hear their advice—stay the course—thread the needle—whip the butter—butcher the hog—-swim with sharks—-they are in eminent danger—and they know it.

Hocus Pocus

Here we go slip sliding down the rabbit hole.

Alice howls as she wonders which pill will make her

bigger and which one will make her smaller??

We dream or we think we do as the snake charmers

fill us full of hope as we await the spectacle….

are we chained to the performance of snake oil salesmen

who bargain our hopes and dreams to be manufactured in China?

Or do we grab the stick and defend our selves from the cola

induced dream of making America great again??

What is again?

We are caught in the endless two step of the dance.

Oh Lordy! Oh Lordy !

buy me a Mercedes Benz

and get me a room in the Chelsea Hotel

kiss me til the cows come home 

roll me 

roll me

as I drift off toward the edge of the nightmare

or the dream.

Quid est Veritas?

“What is truth?”

Things thought, things remembered, things cast off, things collected,time saved, errands run, sleds slide, hammers measured, gifts returned, joy postponed, calls not taken, rides claimed, gestures frozen, rings tossed, games delayed, weddings mourned, death explained, babes born, mothers prepare, fathers remain, glory sings, we sleep, we wake, we dream, we collide, we swing, we rave, we shout, we cry we mourn, our loss and seek the wake.

Oceans of time sweep us toward the beach the drift, the wave. the left handed mirror—the shoulder —all  assemble in parts to show us where we have been and where we are to go—there Eisenstein’s steps gives us a glimpse of our future and our past——We see our lives all in one frame we think we know how it ends but no we don’t know.  no no no no

One year moves to another and so on and so on…

We blink and we are older.

We sleep and wake up with Proust and Eliot

We wonder how to recall the past—is it a burden

or a happy thing.?

2018 near done and so much happened —yet

the highs and lows are stuck in the map of the mind

like little pins

little markers

showing points to travel back and forth

as we muse about time.

What is time but the butter on the bread….we slip and slide

and then what?

Oh these little thoughts—

they accumulate and then what?

These thoughts and memories are

like dust under the sofa

we are at first irritated by it 

and want it all to go away

with our dust mop—

and later we don’t care.

Our care ceases and time clouds the eye

we are stumped

by the pile of time at our elbow.

Damn it!!

We call out 

and who hears us shout

but the echo of our selves.

And the cat on our lap…..

Whew!!!! it is tricky this navigation

of life.

We like it.

And curse it.

We swim in the current

and some days it is against and

some days it is with the flow of the

tides and time.

Get me the duster—let me whisk away 

the time traveled and revel in what is to come.

2019 gets closer—the lens sharpens

now we are ready to take it as it comes….

one day at a time

one decision at a time

one risk

one leap 

into the unknown.

They all wanted to have a monument built to themselves

but the problem was not so easy to solve.

The monument required a hill—for it is said that

one needs to look up to the one that requires celebration.

Well then —if we could not find a hill what would we do?

Well then—people could get down on their knees.

hmmm? that was possible.

When Walt Disney died he asked to be 

frozen—so he is lying around in some freezer

somewhere?

Where?

I don’’t know.

Mickey Mouse is with him but not with him

the image of the mouse lives on and is making money to this 

day—Mickey funds it all and we can’t even draw 

the mouse without paying some kind of royalty fee.

Yes Mickey is a perpetual cash cow.

It does not seem fair—

“FAIR” is not part our the language now

we are not permitted to say that word

since when?

the emperor declared the word “FAIR” to be

eliminated from the people’s dialogue–

at the beginning the the era of Neo-Nero

 sometime near the beginning of the 21st century

during the neo-civil war.

You see there was war declared but it was a war 

without the usual signs….first skirmish was at the Bank

at the bank???

Yes at the bank.

First they sold people stuff they could not afford.

Then they took them to the cleaners and collected

it back so they could sell stuff again.

Then they took away the cash so every one needed 

a card

and if you didn’t have a card you could not have stuff

and if you could not get a card that meant you had

no cash and no ID

You were kind of in a state of non-existence

You know this sounds familiar.

No you think you know but this was the Neo-Nero era

kind of deal——sort of the results of

too much shopping first in stores then shopping moved

on the tv then shopping moved on line

then the shopping moved into the neighborhood

and people started to sell stuff like way beyond

Tupper-ware parties—it got so bad this shopping

biz that people became crowded out of their houses

and then they had to rent storage units to store the stuff

Yes stuff in storage

became the rage

People became more full

as time went on and 

they had to get more storage

and more locks and keys

and more and more

until

Until what?

The landscape littered with box cars

Yes box cars everywhere—

even in back yards and any empty spaces 

that were possible to put a storage unit and fill it with

stuff—

people were more interested in acquiring stuff

than voting or reading the paper or watching tv

or talking to their children or or….

We were lost in the land of storage with no

hope and no future…we were full and at the same

time empty.

How did we get here—from legacy to storage?

It is never easy —these transitions.

Yes like magic

If you don’t keep your eye on the rabbit and the hat

the sleight of hand can kill you.

pass the mashed potatoes.

LIVE BAIT  by Mussmann

Sunday Dec. 16th we will be presenting LIVE BAIT. This is select writing by Linda Mussmann.

I have assembled some random Blogs that I have posted on the TSL site —Blogs that I have posted over time. I have invited 4 people  (Berta Leone, Sheri Bauer, Richard Gillette, John Moletress) plus Claudia Bruce.

This is a chance to hear some words read by the people I have invited to assist.

In addition there will be some music by Claudia & Sheri. and some visual pieces that I have assembled for this project.

A “free event” please check in—my work is not narrative—so there is no drama—i think about events from the times that I wrote these pieces. Some of the pieces are about people I have read at the moment —some pieces are about events that happened at the moment—and some are memories triggered by the time of my “Blog” entry.

So there you are & here I am.

see you Sunday.

Thanksgiving 2018 

November 22nd 55 years after John F. Kennedy was killed in Dallas, Texas

Oh the day of thanks is tainted with the stain of JFK.

We who were witness now mourn the day as if it were now

time the illusive glass remains the glass  darkly through which we strain to

see the three times—past present future.

it is now and forever all wrapped up in our cloak

a kind of cover where in we write our biography.

yes it was

I was

They was

and so is was

a kind of now and forever.

but we too die in time

and leave the print

as we tread toward the dark light 

of our good night.

can we sleep and dream

at the same time 

or are we fixed forever

with eyes wide open.

Section #2

Naming is Knowing

It is said until we name it

we cannot know it

It is said until we see it

we cannot imagine it

It is said until we sing it

we cannot praise it

It is said until we dance it

we cannot feel it

It is said until we lift it

we cannot understand it

It is said until we write it

we cannot read it

It is said until we buy it

we cannot own it

It is said until we thread it

we cannot sew it

It is said until we kill it 

we cannot eat it

It is said until we love it 

we cannot live it.

So when all was said and done and done and said

it was clear that then silence would come

Yes 

Yes this was perhaps the answer 

to the big questions

But 

she was sure she was not sure

yes really 

she was 

she said

Yes
she said this to herself

and to others

but no one was there to hear what she was saying

Yes it was too bad

and no one recorded it

Yes well without a record a recording then

she was certain she did not exist

she was like the tree that fell

in the forest

Yes the fall of the tree

that no one hears

some say

Yes some say –that because

no one hears the tree fall

then did the tree fall?

This is a big question

Because she said it and

no one heard it 

did her words exist

the same can be said

of her image

that if no one saw her

then did she exist

sound is a fact

sight is a fact

yes she thought about 

all the words and all

the books and wondered

what would be heard

and remembered after

all was said and done 

and done and said

who would care about

Dick Cheney’s heart for example?

or the mystery of the 

sacred heart?

who remember the story of

Louie the XIV’s heart

or Joan of Arc’s heart?

or the heart of Chopin? 

It is said that a revolution lives in the hearts of women and men and men and women.

So then how do we advance the revolution after all was said and done

Would the discovery of water on Mars start the fire

that would it burn in the

hearts of the next

revolutionaries

or what 

or what

or what

Hey did you hear the tree fall?

Hey did you see me?

did you did you

or did you fall or did you fail

to set your heart on fire?

(July 18-2018)

If you were not certain about where we stand it should be clear now as the tumble of institutions come thundering down on top of the citizens of this “Yet to be America”.
Now we have lost the credibility of the Supreme Court as well as the Presidency, the Church, and the State will soon follow——By this I mean the Kavanaugh appointment is yet another over reach by the ultra-right. This is/was a power grab and the “grabbing” will continue.
How to combat this tilt is the key to the future of generations to come.
My hope is that people will put down their electronic devices and connect in person with one another.
The act of conversation and organizing is key to turning back the tide that is overwhelming us at this moment in the history of the 21st century.
We must stand up and question the random acts of oppression that we watch daily.
And we must support those that are hit the hardest….those that are the “least” in the eyes of the oppressors that place the heel on our necks (to Quote Ruth Bader Ginsberg).
We now face the loss of the rights of women, voting rights, civil rights, LGBTQ rights, clean air/water rights, and the list goes on.
Greed is a force — it knows no bounds—it is monster that is all consuming—like a hungry dog lapping up the spoils of each thing it conquers— remember “cash is king”.
As the resources of the world diminish we are at a greater risk of losing our little place on earth.
So what to do??
We must organize circles of security—and it needs to be done off-line and in the shadows of the night.
Yes we are being watched and monitored.
It is time to go under ground and rally the forces to fight to re-gain our well-tempered and balanced view of the way of the world——
Hope is not yet lost—but if it is??? then we have nothing to lose by fighting ruthlessly for what is right. (Written on the day after Kavanaugh is appointed to the Supreme Court Oct. 7, 2018

Section #8
Grant woke up from a long sleep.
Grant had been asleep since 1885.
Sleep or death (these are just words describers of things )
states of being
states of non-being
everyday speech
language—the stuff of tongues
terms, certificates, contracts, deeds, etc etc.

Yes “lies” Grant could hear the “lies” from inside his tomb.
“What fresh hell is this?”
—thought Grant

“…make America Great again?”

What “again” is “he” talking about???
If Grant could roll over he would.

But the uniform, the sword
and all the stuff
he was laid out- in- was not permitting the “roll”.

Grant was facing the nation from the bottom up
watching from the “tomb” located in New York City
looking over the mighty messy polluted Hudson River
wondering what this “new”
saving of the nation
was all about????

“I wish I had a cigar
or whisky and a plate full of truth.” Grant said.

WOW!! all those who fought for causes
still cast about in the bardo….
they crowd one another pushing and shoving
wanting to get to the light
they seek a second chance
but are caught in the space of limbo.

Grant says …”and me too…
Me too…
I am not done.
I can’t be still
I see
I hear
The lying Liar….
Rise up—or do you sleep too!!!
Rise up—You all who see
and know.
It is time to save the nation!!!
“Julia wake up help me–help them–!!!”