Lake Michigan, Scene 9
Do you want to see the waters that in the sunlight reminded Simone de Beauvoir of silk and
flashing diamonds
Do you want to see the golden sand of Lake Michigan
Do you want to see the waters that are like silk and flashing diamonds
Do you want to see the seagulls flying over the lake
Do you want to see the authoritative bodies standing on the pier under a banner that reads –
Policia
Come, watch the police remove the homeless bodies from the beach
Come, watch the police beat the mentally ill people on the beach
There are no public mental health facilities to take them to anymore
So the police beat the mentally ill with nightsticks kick them in the face in the back in the
skull then handcuff them and take them to jail
O international observers why do you look away when the homeless bodies are beaten by
the police
O international observers this weekend the police murdered two more people in the squalor
of the streets in the squalor of our human wreckage
O international observers why do you discuss the water-borne domestic sewage discharged
into the lake by the workers from the Department of Streets and Sanitation when you could be
discussing the bodies that the Chicago Police Department tossed into the middle of Lake
Michigan when they ran out of room at the morgue
O international observers have you come to Chicago to see the beautiful birds that fly
above our beaches
Montrose Harbor on the North Side of Chicago is a mecca for birdwatchers
At least 343 species have been spotted there in the past two years including a staggering
variety of rarities and vagrants
It’s an excellent place to observe migration because of its habitat diversity location along a
natural corridor for migrants and the fact that Montrose Point protrudes well into Lake
Michigan
It’s a quiet haven for watching birds and butterflies and you can even see the great Chicago
skyline in the distance
Have you seen the Pacific Loon the Magnificent Frigatebird the Reddish Egret the
Barrow's Goldeneye the Mottled Duck the Swainson's Hawk the Black Rail the
Wandering Tattler the Sandwich Tern the Burrowing Owl the Groove-billed Ani the
Ash-throated Flycatcher the Rock Wren the Sage Thrasher the Townsend's Solitaire
the Townsend's Warbler the Golden-crowned Sparrow the Painted Bunting or the
Eurasian Tree Sparrow
We are lucky to live in a city where we can see so many splendid birds
However it is quite unfortunate to witness what the scavenging bodies have done to the
Eurasian Tree Sparrow with its black patches on its white cheeks
The authoritative bodies claim this bird is a mongrel
Nature claim the authoritative bodies in their manuals is not benevolent in its assignation of
color
What the fuck is a Eurasian the Chicago Police Department wants to know
We can tolerate neither birds nor humans produced by multiple continents says the Mayor
from his home in the Ravenswood neighborhood of Chicago
The mayor’s office makes a list of citizens with hybridized identities and rounds them up
It’s not so hard to stop any body you want if you are a police officer in Chicago
All you need to do is say you suspect it possesses illegal drugs
After that you can basically lock a body up forever
They blindfold the bodies and bind them to cages or trees
They pepper the bodies with questions
What does the darkness look like they ask
How is this darkness different from all other darknesses
O international observers do you want to see the authoritative bodies commanding the
scavenging bodies to eat the raw flesh of the Eurasian Tree Sparrow
Do you want to see the carcasses of the Eurasian Tree Sparrow tossed into the lake and chased
down by the scavengers
Do you want to see the 360 refugees removed from their tent camps on the beaches just east of
the Hancock Tower
Do you want to see the refugees taken to the Social Housing Facilities that have been
established for the refugees and the mentally ill on the northern beaches of Chicago
Although the migrants have made arduous journeys from Central America they have little
chance of finding jobs or securing asylum here in Chicago
By contrast they have an excellent chance of being arrested detained or murdered by the
police or their henchmen
Do you want to see the soldiers with machine guns strapped in front of their chests as they
escort the refugees onto yellow school buses
The international observers don’t feel like seeing anything today
Their local escorts take them to Starbucks where they buy fruit smoothies and protein bistro
boxes so they can enjoy a healthy snack here on the crystalline shores of Lake Michigan
They do not want to see the authoritative bodies force the refugees to shoot the warblers with
their yellow faces with the black stripes across their cheeks extending into their ear patch
with their thin pointed bills their two white wings their olive upper parts with the black
streaks on their backs and flanks their white bellies
The authoritative bodies don’t like that these birds have so many colors
These birds belong in the coniferous forests of the Northwest United States and not on the
urban beaches of Chicago
They don’t like these nomadic birds just as they don’t like the refugees from Central America
In the next fiscal year the bureaucrats will write a line in the budget to make the birds
disappear
They will make the nomadic birds and the refugees disappear forever into the murmuring darkness
of this interminable carcass night
