MAY BE! (Chorus for Inquisitive Occupiers)

NACLA poetry series from CantoMundo's event "Ferguson/Ayotzinapa: CantoMundo Poets Read and Respond."

December 26, 2014

Rodrigo Toscano

On December 15, New York's Loisaida Center hosted a poetry reading in which current and former fellows of the national Latina/o poets workshop CantoMundo read from their work in solidarity with ongoing protests and mobilizations in and around Ferguson, Missouri, and the College of Ayotzinapa in Iguala, Mexico. NACLA is publishing a series from the event.

 

Does Occupy exceed Occupy as an Occupation?

Does Occupy need Occupy to Occupy?

Can Occupy Occupy without Occupy?

Does Occupy need to get De-Occupied to Re-Occupy?

Will De-Occupy need to get Re-Occupied to Occupy?

Will Re-Occupy need Occupy in anyway at all?

Were there poetic acts that came before Occupy that were mainly of Occupy?

Are there now poetic acts or critical projects about Occupy that contain nothing of the stuff of Occupy?

Will there be poetic acts that fall between the cracks of Occupy, De-Occupy, and Re-Occupy, but that are still Occupational?

Has Occupy already caused fissures in genres not yet fully existing?

Has Occupy called forth cadres of cultural managers in advance of genres not yet fully existing?

Is Occupy a genre?

Is genre a cultural worker of the future not fully existing in need of Occupation?

Is genre a cultural worker of the future not fully existing in need of De-Occupation?

Is cultural manager a nice way of saying pimp daddy dog sucker fuck wad?

Can Occupy Occupy Occupy?

Is there a poetic act or critical project whose burning desire is to Occupy Everything?

Is there a poetic act or critical project whose burning desire is to De-Occupy Everything?

Is there a poetic act or critical project whose burning desire is to Re-Occupy Everything?

Is desire an Occupation?

Can Re-Occupy Occupy Re-Occupy?

What are the Occupational Hazards now of fissures in genres of the future not yet fully existing?

Are Occupational Hazards best handled through smart mitigation devices, sweeping changes in procedure, better alarm systems, personal protective equipment, or an engineering out of the Hazard?

Can De-Occupy Re-Occupy Occupy?

Is Something a little better than Nothing, though not quite Everything?

Is Nothing a little better than Everything, if Something comes out of it?

Is Everything a little better than Something, even though Nothing might come out it?

Can De-Occupy De-Occupy De-Occupy just long enough for Occupy to Re-Occupy De-Occupy?  

Are the not-yet-fully-existing Communitarians the actually existing Communitarians?

What happened to Wall Street—didn’t it precipitate the collapse of pimp daddy dog sucker fuck wad economy?

Is somebody a whole lot better than nobody, though not quite everybody?

Is nobody a whole lot better than everybody, if somebody gets something out of it?

Is everybody a whole lot better than somebody, even though somebody might not get anything out of it?  

Will Occupy be a genre without an Occupation?

Does Occupy now have a pimp daddy dog sucker fuck wad “J” “O” “B”? 


Rodrigo Toscano’s is author of Deck of Deeds (Counterpath Press 2012) and Collapsible Poetics Theater, the latter chosen for the 2007 National Poetry Series. Forthcoming from Fence Books in 2016 is Explosion Rocks Springfield. He was the recipient of a New York State Fellowship in Poetry. His poetry has appeared in numerous anthologies, including Against Expression, Diasporic Avant Gardes, Angels of the Americlypse, and Best American Poetry. He has also performed at the Disney Redcat Theater and Ontological-Hysteric Poet’s Theater Festival. His radio pieces have aired on WPIX FM, KAOS Public Radio, WNYU, and PS.1 Radio. His poetry has been translated into French, Dutch, Italian, German, Portuguese, Norwegian and Catalan. Toscano works for the Labor Institute in conjunction the United Steelworkers and the National Institute for Environmental Health Science. 

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