This makes me think of New Orleans and Katrina, and I was surprised to find it was written a long time before that!
But more generally, it seems to be about government and the way the common people (us) are so far removed from them, and their lifestyles are almost dreamlike in comparison. It's from the POV of the normal people, who have to deal with it, while 'he' doesn't.
I first heard it live from one of those Def poetry slams, and the thing I love about how she did it there was the way she tells this story, this perspective, free from that generic anger you hear so much of in anarchist/anti-government songs and poems. It was so calm and human. And it feels like it's about the powerless side of this perspective, be it liberal or whatever you want to call it. There's so much about the powerful side, 'the people will rise up', but this is unusual because it feels like it's about how it feels when your efforts to change things seem to be going nowhere, but there's this subculture of hope anyway. It's such a very bittersweet poem.
This makes me think of New Orleans and Katrina, and I was surprised to find it was written a long time before that!
But more generally, it seems to be about government and the way the common people (us) are so far removed from them, and their lifestyles are almost dreamlike in comparison. It's from the POV of the normal people, who have to deal with it, while 'he' doesn't.
I first heard it live from one of those Def poetry slams, and the thing I love about how she did it there was the way she tells this story, this perspective, free from that generic anger you hear so much of in anarchist/anti-government songs and poems. It was so calm and human. And it feels like it's about the powerless side of this perspective, be it liberal or whatever you want to call it. There's so much about the powerful side, 'the people will rise up', but this is unusual because it feels like it's about how it feels when your efforts to change things seem to be going nowhere, but there's this subculture of hope anyway. It's such a very bittersweet poem.