Local News

Thank you, Tom Brokaw, and now
for the local news today, the signs all point to
PAY DAY LOANS
CHECKS CASHED
SOUTH GATE SHOPPING CENTER
MEGAWASH
This is South 6th Ave, the bad ass Southside
of Tucson, AZ on a hot humid morning here at
PETE’S AUTO REPAIR where
I came to get my truck aligned. On the wall are
aging, signed photos of George and Laura Bush dancing,
and standing outside the Crawford Ranch
and at the White House.
Pete paid a lot of hard earned money
for those pictures. His picture
as a young airforce man and a 4 engine seaplane bomber
sits below them.
Rush Limbaugh’s on the radio in the alignment pit
trashing the liberals and their silly concerns:
that burning fossil fuels is somehow connected
to global warming, cancer, and other diseases,
that buying from Walmart is connected
to sweat shops
that the rich are connected
thru blood and bone to the poor
that the survival of endangered species and old growth forests
are connected
to our survival
how ridiculous can you get we’re a species that lives
on money produced
by private enterprise
and oil and money are in no way connected
to our pre emptive strike against Iraq
we did it because we wanted those people to vote
for the first time because
Iraq ‘05 is equal to Reichstadt ‘40
Saddam Hussein equals Hitler.
I get up and leave the waiting room
because the swamp cooler makes me sneeze
and the young Mexican Woman
disturbs my concentration with her beauty.
I go outside & try to work on this silly collage book
trying to connect my broken world
dislocated in time, space and money
for the last 25 years..."Mr. Williams!" Pete’s voice
booms kindly, behind me. I get up from the asphalt bump
where I’m sitting, to go in and pay up,
$35, best deal in town. But suddenly I realize
this has to be the last time because
the money I just gave him has blood on it. A man walks by
with that fixed stare that says he’s got noplace to go
but he’s got to keep going. A woman
from Sonora, Mexico, who speaks no English
goes in to ask if she can use the bathroom.
Jets fly overhead.
Iraq equals Germany.
Everything equals everything else.
And nothing is connected.