Eugene Ostashevsky, p.1
DJ SPINOZA FIGHTS JOSEPH BEDIER
for Paul Poissel & Olivier Brossard
DJ Spinoza runs
among thoughts of women
He says to Roland, Sire
There’s been a grave error
Those you fought were Basques
fiercely independent
admirers of modern art
more European than Goethe
They mined your horse
and it blew up when you jumped in the saddle
I should have known they were Basques,
Roland says to DJ Spinoza
By the looks of their casques
By the widths of their masks
I should have known they were Basques
And when they unfurled
those postcolonial soccer scarves
Then I definitely should have known they were Basques
That’s who hit us with rocks
without so much as an apology
And to think we gave them electricity and archeology
Put down that horn, Laurence Olivier
It won’t bring back Western civilization
AOI
DJ Spinoza says to Roland, Sire
There’s been a grave error
You’ve caused them a lot of suffering,
your schoolmasters
Alcuin, first ever minister of culture
Hrabanus Maurus, lover of number theory
and Fridugis of Tours
with his dumb-ass Boethian semiotics
France has got the yearning for the learning
Even the emperor keeps letter blocks under his pillow
because he dreams of one day waking up literate
whereas you… you…
Blow that horn, Laurence Olivier
as a manly dirge for la mission civilizatrice
Roland says to DJ Spinoza
OK, so we fought the wrong people
What do you want me to do:
smash my sword because of it
next to where my buddy lies dying
Laurence Olivier
from 153 slash ‘n’ stab wounds
got by running through a glass pane
at the new museum
because I mistook it for a mosque
dedicated to “Mr. Apollo”?
There’s so many wars to come on this continent
Who cares what happened in this one
Olivier, can you hear me? I said: Put down that horn
Our deeds will be recorded in minuscule
AOI
for Paul Poissel & Olivier Brossard
DJ Spinoza runs
among thoughts of women
He says to Roland, Sire
There’s been a grave error
Those you fought were Basques
fiercely independent
admirers of modern art
more European than Goethe
They mined your horse
and it blew up when you jumped in the saddle
I should have known they were Basques,
Roland says to DJ Spinoza
By the looks of their casques
By the widths of their masks
I should have known they were Basques
And when they unfurled
those postcolonial soccer scarves
Then I definitely should have known they were Basques
That’s who hit us with rocks
without so much as an apology
And to think we gave them electricity and archeology
Put down that horn, Laurence Olivier
It won’t bring back Western civilization
AOI
DJ Spinoza says to Roland, Sire
There’s been a grave error
You’ve caused them a lot of suffering,
your schoolmasters
Alcuin, first ever minister of culture
Hrabanus Maurus, lover of number theory
and Fridugis of Tours
with his dumb-ass Boethian semiotics
France has got the yearning for the learning
Even the emperor keeps letter blocks under his pillow
because he dreams of one day waking up literate
whereas you… you…
Blow that horn, Laurence Olivier
as a manly dirge for la mission civilizatrice
Roland says to DJ Spinoza
OK, so we fought the wrong people
What do you want me to do:
smash my sword because of it
next to where my buddy lies dying
Laurence Olivier
from 153 slash ‘n’ stab wounds
got by running through a glass pane
at the new museum
because I mistook it for a mosque
dedicated to “Mr. Apollo”?
There’s so many wars to come on this continent
Who cares what happened in this one
Olivier, can you hear me? I said: Put down that horn
Our deeds will be recorded in minuscule
AOI