poem by: Ryan Thoresen Carson<\/strong> \/\/\/
art by: Alexander Haristhal<\/strong><\/p>
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and man did we have a good time,
so good that time will cease to exist,
in that it is human, to be kept at all.
in Irish folk ballads the self is usually the enemy,
in that to exist at all, is to be keeping yourself-
housebroken, to desire at all,
is to pit yourself against the world.
the Irish, of course, are a people so worried
about original sin and patriarchal modesty
that they\u2019ve been colonized in mind, body, and spirit
which are all affected by time, but it\u2019s hard to say
which one truly keeps the books.
modernist Irish literature is primarily about the erosion
of social norms, the way in which freedom, as in total liberty,
is the most existentially terrifying thing,
in that we are essentially all the ties that bind us,
the anarchists who drink in the damp basements
tend to also be concerned with the matter,
but both have found the chemical cure,
the better living through pharmacy.
in acclaimed Irish songwriter Phil Lynot\u2019s ballad
to the ties that bind, The Boys are Back in Town,
the night out, the retying of fraternal bonds,
the renewal of the platonic vows, is the willing
of solidarity through getting absolutely fucking obliterated.
most theoretical leftists I know aren\u2019t very much fun at parties.
but my boys, when we are in town, will utopia into existence.
in Joyce\u2019s Ulysses we are meant to understand making it home,
returning to your chosen family as the struggle of modernity,
a feeling anyone who rides the MTA can empathize with.
\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/oxmag\/files\/2019\/11\/IMG-1146-2-677x1024.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\nin the Hotelier\u2019s Massachusetts classic Home Like No Place is There
Christian Holden imagines a worst case-scenario for each of his friends
as they encounter the classic twenty-something person trope of \u201cthe sky is falling,\u201d
Holden understands that the post-modern person\u2019s utopia is texts back from
your chosen family, constantly fearing the worst, that a few hours without
contact could be oblivion, revelation typically occurring in solitude.
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Ryan Thoresen Carson is a community organizer and poet living in Brooklyn, New York. His most recent chapbook is entitled Don’t Watch Me Dancing<\/em> and it is available via Txt Books here<\/a>.
Alexander Haristhal is a an artist living in Brooklyn. He is interested in merging the macabre with the mundane though painting and sculpture. He attended the Pratt Institute. He is from Minneapolis. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/oxmag\/files\/2020\/06\/output-onlinepngtools-6.png\")
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