Status Report 200
It’s now.
Now another now.
It was now but that now’s not now now.
If now never stops
how can now be now again?
Was now.
Is now.
Will be now.
When’s now then?
Where the flux before and after?
Now then lie.
– Smith, 4.5.2016
Seven years ago stopped by Social Security building on West 75, walked in, took a number, was served, and left.
This morning ride my bicycle up in 27 degree spring weather, walk in to metal detectors and two brown-suited armed guards.
Told me to empty my pockets, take off my belt. Hauled handfuls of change and poetry and metal scraps into their bins, followed by a baggy of baking soda for emergency stomach acid which looked an awful lot like a bag of cocaine . . . their eyebrows went up but they said nothing.
Forgetting to take off my belt, I told them I had metal in me that would set off their detector anyway. It did. They wanded my cobalt and chrome shoulder and my titanium hip, both of which set off alarms, and let me in.
Can’t wait for more metal when they add two rods to my neck in two weeks. Don’t see me and the metal detectors getting along in the future, which in these days of Big Brother could be interesting.
