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Of Time and Emergence
While honored Scholars seminar about
varying Perceptions of Time,
the sociolinguistics of emergent boundaries,
Culture as a proper noun,
and the semiotic implications of Coca-Cola and porcelain
as signifiers of post-modern identity,
they sip colas from cans stamped by mechanics
whose days are orchestrated
by a Charlie Chaplin on speed,
colas lugged up the stairways of Academe
by herniated drivers whose kidneys are bruised daily
by suspensionless trucks rushing through potholed New Brunswick streets,
through streets where homeless teens chase Time
in 15-minute repetitions of syringe-assisted chemical culture,
while their mothers' sponges tap out the rhythm
of the hours before shift's end,
before the ever-dirty porcelain toilet bowls glisten awaiting corporate asses,
and their fathers do Time within boundaries
of moldy cement, do seconds, do minutes, do months, seasons, years, indeed
decades of Time
before they can themselves be emergent from boundaries,
can walk past potholes
to beg a cola, a job, a mop,
and carcinogenic solvents
to scour the floors of each seminar room
once a semester
lest moldy post-modern musings
comprehend need and its angers,
lest they mutate into ideas
of freedom for
all.
--Sam Friedman
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