MikeVarley

Episode IV of "Election '08," a series of spoken word works by Mike Varley covering the 2008 campaign. A new entry every Sunday with free mp3 downloads at mikevarley.com.

On Health Care

I arose one morning
naked to potential harms -
exposed in a nation of lobbies.

And my duty was plain:
to recover myself from future misfortunes
distasteful to casual ears.

The family barber, the third
down neighbor, the cragged
librarian, the cordial face.

Who receive your ruin with genuine something,
reflect on relief

This week's entry is in response to Tina Fay's endorsement of Hillary Clinton on Saturday Night Live. The video can be seen here:

http://www.nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Live/video/play.shtml?m...

On Weekend Update

It takes a bitch to set the world straight, Tina Fey. A bitch to unite us under one desperately gripped banner -- a coming together of self-interests, a communion of back scratchers, a conjunction of facelessness, a coalition of the vacant.

Tina Fey, experience's pupil, bitches keep the lights on.

On Consolation

Hillary, Hillary,
I rival your sadness with empathy,
Well-meaning lost traveler on sympathy's path.
Compromise wasn't easy at first, laying down
Youthful hopes in the face of impossible odds.
Stripped of vigor, a bureaucrat is formed -
Freshly buffed and barcoded.
When aspirations turn to lax inclinations,
Hope's aperture wanes.

Hillary, when he broke the deal, Hillary,
When he broke the seal Hillary and robbed you
Of humor.
When he did this, to press on or back out, Hillary?
To grit teeth

Episode X of "Election '08," a series of spoken word works by Mike Varley covering the 2008 campaign. A new entry every Sunday with free mp3 downloads at mikevarley.com.

On the Economy

I cracked a little today when we packed up our house. I took the deep green shutters with the crescent moons off the front windows because they're ours and the bank can't have them. People tell me lonely footprints means God's carrying you but why he'd take us through this neighborhood I can't understand.

At night, I do in

Episode IX of "Election '08," a series of spoken word works by Mike Varley covering the 2008 campaign. A new entry every Sunday with free mp3 downloads at mikevarley.com.

On Bitterness (19 Questions)

How do you spell "indignation" in a beautiful way?
How do you fight hypocrisy that zaps like a bug lamp?
Is it possible to be broken in the best possible way?
Is it reasonable to judge a man on his very best day?

How did the olives and the oil meet their parting?
How did the orchid make love without lifting

Hillary, if desire equated to competence,
you'd sit at the right hand of the Father.
If yearning were the formula,
you'd cure the atom bomb.

The shrewd ambiguities --
the "mist peak" --
the vague side of the valley.
To live in the murk
of our languages failures,
a candidate minus the "candid" bit.

Supporters forgive citing business as usual
unwilling to purchase the fact
that just because failings have governed their lifetimes
does not mean we can't take it back.
And so
you've been gifted a mandate.
A per

Episode VI of "Election '08," a series of spoken word works by Mike Varley covering the 2008 campaign. A new entry every Sunday with free mp3 downloads at mikevarley.com.

On Obama's Philadelphia Speech

God damn America
God damn America, the reverend Wright said, fiery and
measured to the workings of the world.
God damn America, his soul snared to a hate-taut tether,
shocking us with the fruits of black reality.

Did you think old men still heal?
Do you depend on reptilian regeneration?

The maimed and hea

Episode II of "Election '08," a series of spoken word works by Mike Varley covering the 2008 campaign. A new entry every Sunday with free mp3 downloads at mikevarley.com.

On Turban Etiquette


Obama got in on a sunny day in August, 2006. The tarmac was flawless and the click of highly polished dignitary shoes on special airplane asphalt seemed right to him. He wondered where they sold something the kids wouldn't be freaked out about eating. He used the bathroom and couldn't figure out how to get more towel

Episode V of "Election '08," a series of spoken word works by Mike Varley covering the 2008 campaign. A new entry every Sunday with free mp3 downloads at mikevarley.com.

On Gerry Ferraro

Reporting from the corner of California, a character anomaly is found in the words of Gerry Ferraro. Only Kristen and Spitzer saved her -- they bronzed the Jersey Girl mold after they made that one.

Gerry Ferraro, what was your intent? To cast thought seeds on the American public? Hey, if it sways some people, maybe time

Episode VII of "Election '08," a series of spoken word works by Mike Varley covering the 2008 campaign. A new entry every Sunday with free mp3 downloads at mikevarley.com.

On Bill Richardson

Albuquerque benefactor,
Pennsylvania mile.
The growth upon Allegiance face
shorn clear appears a child.

Kitchen cab'net keepsake
sip cup worn and true.
Spring cleaning Yakov Smirnoff
insolent cup cleans you.

Simpsons reference 3:16
a language for the lost.
I'd quote the Summa if I thought
your ears were not the cost

Episode XI of "Election '08," a series of spoken word works by Mike Varley covering the 2008 campaign. A new entry every Sunday with free mp3 downloads at mikevarley.com.

To The New Electorate

"For your consideration," he said in a scholarly tone, "I would like to submit an anthem of understanding stirred by the memory of Carlo, the undeniable mother lover in whose line art aspires. His artifacts of romance are revered in a world where philosophers test aesthetics in second-hand dress, where DIY is darlin