Sumerian Script

I scarify my soul in the humorless moon of a long night in a clean well lighted place — which is a bullet ridden cafe in Ouagadougou — during a monsoon month of dust and quiet whippoorwills.

I prune leafy trees leafless, hot with fleas, and fleecing your sister’s sake.

You said, “I got mine and you’ll be fine.”

I said, “summer is your sister’s fate, her shizophrenic haze, is the strength of the weakness in her occipital lobe.”

You said my comedy was sublimely written — like it was written in Sumerian script for a Mandarin world.

There was one full minute of elation, followed by a lifetime deflation.

What I’m Reading:

Indeed, in a strange twist on the Old Testament tale, Musk and his fellow tech billionaires, having arrogated god-like powers to themselves, aren’t content to just build the arks. They appear to be doing their best to cause the flood. Today’s rightwing leaders and their rich allies are not just taking advantage of catastrophes, shock-doctrine and disaster-capitalism style, but simultaneously provoking and planning for them. 

— Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor / “The rise of end times fascism” / The Guardian