I was so much older then, I am younger than that now...

I have become convinced that the American soul is incredibly undernourished and see this as one of the most pressing policy concerns of the coming decades, if not the most pressing policy concern. I do not think hundreds of channels of TV or the proliferation of i-pods is going to do it. And no number of youtube videos or blogs can make up the deficit. We need a system over-hall. Jesus, I already sound like an old man. Maybe, but I see no other truth.

The Manchu State

The ichor of callow lords coursing verdant, spilt for us,
Splayed in doffed raiment of flaxen hemp and fustian might,
The vatic pride of prescient wisdom of the pending fall,
It is all too much for me tonight.

The world is too flat and hot and crowded they’ll say,
No reason to sire those who cannot play,
Or lift a spoon without the guilt of this;
Their footprints mashed and without bliss.

We are the new Qing Dynasty, with bounded carbon-feet,
Hobbled still with awkward hope and trenchant grief.