Steve Barbaro
I'll spell spell w/ three L's & you'll spell eel w/ real eels
—no, no—I'll spell spiel w/ six i's & you'll spell pile w/ sea
shells…I mean cracked shells……hmm…OK…& mean-
while: a voice jumps from each glass; each glass is in this
room; this room's cluttered w/ printouts; the printouts con-
sist of a historian's lectures; the historian speaks of empire;
so many empire-niched people seem to suppress thoughts of
the empire's very existence! it's sad, really, & the historian
laments history itself seeming ever more non-existent—then
we 2 friendly constituents discuss history's conspicuous lack
w/ the ritual flow of homemade blood orange schnapps…but,
but—what if you spell hell w/ three E's, OK, & I spell ease w/
hawked phlegm? no, no—you'll spell you as whole nation & in-
stead of nation I'll just say ordering principle……& meanwhile:
an old voice jumps from each glass; the room is in fact in each
glass; we drink glasses; through the glasses we see the print-
outs; the orange liquid obscures a historian's lectures; yet we
can still make out how the historian points out how even would-
be experts of the empire succumb to ahistorical whims until
we 2 friends are discussing for instance how the lecturer
brings up the example of 1 famed Iraq War expert who is now
somehow so oblivious to the war's infinite horrors in light of
the empire's new horrors some 15 years after the War was
lyingly started that said expert allies himself w/ the very folks
who unremorsefully helped start the Iraq war in the 1st place