The Match Factory

Development at the corner of Monterey and Country Club
(they're watering dirt that used to have things growing in it) - by Dan Schreiber

they were allowed to tear out the date palms
native vegetation
that would have helped hold the dirt in place without any water
but are now required to run sprinklers all day
half a dozen or so on giant piles of dry earth
so the flow of petroleum-burning, carbon-emitting autos is not interrupted by blowing dust
in the desert
a large placard gives a number to call with complaints
where would a caller really begin?

Untitled 1 - by Dan Schreiber

in hills less black
we dig for teeth
giving them history
introducing timeline

their value now true
as assigned
their loss now of import
as found
we give them our grace
meaning
we give ourselves place
imparting gifts

d.schreiber
09.01.2005

Untitled 2 - by Dan Schreiber

shirts tucked neatly
  into [self-importance]
  wrinkle-free
  in the proper seasonal color(s)
sized appropriately
  cuffs {blending} seemingly seamlessly
  into -of course- "recycled" shopping bags
    stuffed to overflowing with
    *handmade*
shirts tucked neatly
  into [self-importance]
  wrinkle-free
  in the proper seasonal color(s)
sized appropriately
  cuffs {blending} seemingly seamlessly
  into -of course- "recycled" shopping bags
    stuffed to overflowing with
    *handmade*shirts tucked neatly
  into [self-importance]
  wrinkle-free
  in the proper seasonal color(s)
sized appropriately
  cuffs {blending} seemingly seamlessly
  into -of course- "recycled" shopping bags
    stuffed to overflowing with
    *handmade*
shirts

d.schreiber
09.01.2005

Untitled 3 - by Dan Schreiber

ballast
pouring
into
native
bodies
introducing
foreign
bodies

foreign
bodies
introducing
foreign
methods
to
native
systems

native
methods
in
perpetual
flux
answering
foreign
systems

d.schreiber
09.01.2005

untitled - by Dan Schreiber

i had to leave the bar way too early because everybody else was tired and i didn't drive seperately but i had put down a few and was going to be up for a while so i fired up the laptop and opened word. it made perfect sense when i wrote it.

humason smoked a pipe
so we doubted the existence of io’s sulfur volcanoes for decades
sulfur
sulfur on jupiter’s moons
they say if there is any life in the universe outside of earth the moons of the inner gas giants are probably where we’ll find it
cold
frozen water
storms a hundred miles wide that have lasted for centuries
life as we know it
one big asteroid
dirty snowball
gets just enough off course
and life as we know it is gone
even if it exists somewhere else
because we won’t be here to know it
so it can’t be life as we know it
which doesn’t make it any less life
just not known
and the fucking arizona monsoon
washes the trash off the streets
even if it’s not a true monsoon
the rain comes in
and the dirt stops blowing for a day
but the first drops are eerie
as they kick up dust
and life as we know it
stops
only dormant
not dead
to return again tomorrow
to kick up more dust
and replace the trash on the streets
and some days
just some days
it might be nice to watch the whole place burn
and the ashes washed by that monsoon
all the way to the river
and back to mexico
where nobody pretends they live here by choice
or that they’ve ever heard of humason
or io
or the arizona monsoon
but they know the smell of sulfur
and understand what a sulfur volcano would be like
because we gave them factories
gas giants
spewing god knows fucking what
into life as they know it
and their lungs burn
and their eyes sting
and their hearts ache
and their minds long for that time before anyone ever told them we existed
and brother we can’t spare a dime
because we spent it on a machine to make sure we know what the fucking volcanoes
on a rock on the other side of the solar system are doing
and if there’s life there
as we know it
and we can’t even figure out how to sustain
preserve
the life as we know it
that we know already
and may god have mercy on whatever life may exist elsewhere
and keep us far
far
far away from it

green light manifesto (getupandrun) - by Dan Schreiber

green light manifesto (getupandrun)

and when i say run, motherfucker, i mean run
     sever
          separate
               disappear
go
-truly go- if only to stop
(stagnating)(accumulation)(complacency)
doubt
the 49ers went
and they took
and they never gave back more than bones
but they left a fucking mark             a scar
go for nothing
not gold
not love
not experience
not knowledge
   not spiritual growth
    not humanitarian goodwill
     not pleasure
      not escape
perthkyotoreykjavicbaikalbhutantanzanialimafuckingsaturn
not here (there) but there (here)
no mark name story to tell
forget that you are
and just fucking go
forget and move (and move, ad infinitum)
now get up now and run now

it was one of those nights - by Dan Schreiber

October 16, 2004

5% of the world
using 75% of its resources
we're the bad guys
we
not they
unless we change
and i don't mean
not eating meat
making your own clothes
and wiping your ass with your bare hand
i mean change
real change
stop what's wrong
meaning us
if we take part in the system
we are part of the system
stop the system
rebel
revolt
overthrow
-----
pacifism is
(obviously)
the best idea
in a perfect world
anyone who thinks this is a perfect world
or even the best one possible
should probably be one of the first to go
end it
bring in chaos
could what comes out of the chaos be worse?
yes
could it be better?
yes
let's take our chances
i'm willing to gamble

"fuck it all and fucking no regrets"

OSLO - by Dan Schreiber

or Sig

a viking asks me
   "what is your relationship with gods?"
i take another drink
   of this viking beer
   listen to this viking music
   and think about this viking question
"i don't know..."
   and my
    (only slightly viking)
   mind sails
    ['from the land of the ice and snow']
   across the ocean
    first traversed by this man's fathers
   to relationships
"...what do you mean by 'relationships' - and, maybe more importantly, by 'gods'?"
"exactly! fucking beautiful! we created the gods, so they are part of us, so they are us!"
"right. so i have very different relationships with very different gods - and goddesses, if
     you want to make the distinction."
"i don't think it's really needed, but i am glad to meet an american god."
"and i a norwegian."
"skål."
"skål."
we drank
   talked
   listened
   thought
viking gods

quite possibly the shortest poem ever written
or Ayn Rand on Ayn Rand - by Dan Schreiber

for Caleb Paul

I

d.schreiber
09.01.2005

Unionpack - by Dan Schreiber

mom tells me he has an incurable lung disease
treatable

he spent his youth
the great depression
bustin’ broncos
on wyoming homestead land
at one
and odds
with the elements
breathing oxygen most of us can only dream about
now he breathes oxygen© most of us dread

he rode in his teenage buddy’s packard
to watch them carve mt. rushmore
and talk to the dynamite workers
high on pre-OSHA scaffolds
‘until a girl fell to her death’
now he has trouble scaling the stairs to his bed

he cast his fly in every alpine pond the tetons had to offer
and filled his basket on the way back to camp
where he waited for his elk-hunting partners
and prepared a feast of rainbows
now he rests in an armchair after surveying his half acre

he walked to work through his 70’s
in the same slaughterhouse that had been the largest on earth
during omaha’s beef heydays
[the one i ran to at 11 or 12
where only he could find my hiding place
above the dormant cattle pens
to ask, ‘are you ready to come home now?’]
until the bastards decided he was too old
to do what he was
now he holds the tank in one hand and vacuums the living room with the other

he held (holds) an unwavering faith in the God that created both
these lungs
and the minds
that created
   the stainless steel dust
   and ammonia
that have destroyed these lungs

[in nearly 30 years i have never heard him swear
but his ‘foolishness’
puts ‘bullshit’ to shame]

he has been to me the epitome
of Patience
of Resilience
of Self-Reliance
of (true) Christian Love/Tolerance
of MIDWEST

Frank Thompson is my grandfather
grandpa
and tonight i’m not sure whether the Pride
or the Anger
defines me
as i define myself
by my endless attempt to be a man
he can be half as proud to call his
    grandson

for him i’ll have faith that we’re not just rearranging the deck chairs on the titanic
that this world IS beautiful and worth fighting for