We Plough Along (poem draft)

I’ll stop fussing with this one. Set it away here rather than in backlogged files:

Who Drives?

“And so we plough along, as the fly said to the ox”
~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Every moment is measured;
Every step is counted.
I didn’t come here to tell you
how this is going to end.

I came here to tell you how
it’s going to begin: All
men die, few men really live.
Create enough hunger and

everyone becomes a criminal.
A single grain of rice can
tip the scale. He didn’t fall…in-
conceivable. It seemed

excessive, but that doesn’t
mean it didn’t happen.
Not everybody gets corrupted.
You have to have a little faith.

You told the truth
up to a point. But a lie
of omission is still a lie.
The fool looks at a finger

that points at the sky. I can’t
express anger. That’s one
of the problems I have.
I grow a tumor instead.

A member of my own race
getting above himself; Angel
of Music, you’ve deceived me.
I gave you my mind blindly.

Assemble the monkey warriors.
I want my environment to be
a product of me. I won’t be
the one who vanishes.

–

A cento of movie quotes to see what new context appears from the quilt pieces of sentences. I don’t know what the effect would be for people who have a soundtrack in their head of these movies.

quote of Longfellow

Lisa Berndl (Letter from an Unknown Woman, 1948)
Neo (The Matrix, 1999)

William Wallace (Braveheart, 1995)
Ra’s al Ghul (Batman Begins, 2005)
Emperor of China (Mulan, 1998)

Vizzini (The Princess Bride, 1987)
Pulp Fiction (1994)
Tracy (Manhattan, 1979)

Captain Picard, (First Mission, 1992)
The Sacré-Coeur Boy (Amelie, 2001)
Isaac Davis (Manhattan, 1979)

Tillie (Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, 1967)
Christine (Phantom of the Opera, 2004)

Rama (Sita Sings the Blues, 2008)
Frank Costello (The Departed, 2006)
Lisa Berndl (Letter from an Unknown Woman, 1948)

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