The post-conference party\u2019s second wave had arrived and soon
\nI notice familiar sly hand gestures, so tag on to the end
\nOf the exodus from the Christmas light lit living room to
\nThe dilapidated upstate New York porch packed with old couches.<\/p>\n
My mouth is soon on the blunt after a friendly inquiry
\nAnd we get to talking about the sessions we\u2019d seen,
\nAnd what it will mean for the Social Justice Movement in America
\nTo have a Black President as The Man in power for the first time ever.<\/p>\n
The mixed race political theorist that the other students
\nCall Heideggerian-Anarchist behind his back, or so my friend
\nTells me, performs a longwinded paean to Possibilities
\nThat I, a historian, counter with a less sanguine assessment.<\/p>\n
Having been pulled under the wing of someone that\u2019s
\nMade a career of saying such things in glossy magazines
\nHe counters my empiricism with arrogant idealism\u00a0\u2013
\nI almost respond with blows, but think \u00a0“decorum\u201d, hit it again then go.<\/p>\n
I float past those spastically dancing to the irregular beats
\nAnd lyrics with love-lost themes on the uneven living room
\nBack to the seat that I had just occupied only to find that
\nIt\u2019s now been taken by the event\u2019s keynote speaker.<\/p>\n
His scarf brushes again and again against the band
\nOn his ring finger as he gesticulates high to low
\nIn and out to emphasize whatever he\u2019s explaining
\nTo the manic pixie dream girl sitting next to him.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a red string braided into her unkempt bleached
\nOrange hair, she wears a chain necklace with boho baubles,
\nHas a glass of five-dollar-a-bottle champagne in her hand
\nAnd a neighbor looking up at me with a fuck off stare.<\/p>\n
I lie through my teeth and give compliment to his speech
\nThat claimed an understanding of Ancient Greek Tragedy
\nShould inform how we frame resistance to contemporary policies
\nAnd that seizing the state is no way to stop neoliberalism.<\/p>\n
Given this gem of status in front of his hopeful conquest
\nHe repeats in his West Herts accent the same jest he opened with
\nAbout how glad he was that while the TSA did cause delay,
\nX-rays can\u2019t yet reveal worldviews and so he was able to make it.<\/p>\n
Turning to assess her reception he smiles seeing her do the same,
\nUnaware that she came from VT to see me and is mine, for now;
\nHis face again frowns as I bend down and say just loud enough for
\nThe three of us: I\u2019ve grown tired of this, let\u2019s go back to the hotel<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s forget all the things we think we know and just go
\nAt each other like the animals we are for as long as
\nOur bodies will last and she says: Yes, let\u2019s.
\nAnd this is why I love her, in my own way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The post-conference party\u2019s second wave had arrived and soon I notice familiar sly hand gestures, so tag on to the end Of the exodus from the Christmas light lit living room to The dilapidated upstate New York porch packed with old couches. My mouth is soon on the blunt after a friendly inquiry And we … Continue reading “The Hipster Demagogue, The Leftist Professor & The Manic Pixie Dream Girl”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[87,8,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1474","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-creative","category-creative-writing","category-politics"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8e7kf-nM","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arielsheen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1474","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arielsheen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arielsheen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arielsheen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arielsheen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1474"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/arielsheen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1474\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1675,"href":"https:\/\/arielsheen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1474\/revisions\/1675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arielsheen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arielsheen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arielsheen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}