THINGS

OK. All this "worst storm ever" talk in the media and...around re: Sandy, a bigger mess than we thought, is nonetheless horrific & stunning to me in that this storm's human fatality rate, tragic in and of itself, was fortunately low, which would be my own measure of disaster scale. But: guess I'm wrong again! So I guess what all this means is people on the Gulf Coast who died by the thousands during Katrina, not to mention its aftermath et al., are worth less than people's THINGS on the East Coast. Goddamn I feel alienated, alienated like the amazing people I came up with here have been drowned out too, with my childhood block torn up while city brats pitch fits over inconveniences, alienated like I'm there again, I'm there again sitting in a fold-out chair on the front lawn in MS after Katrina with the friend who has since killed himself (in my dreams I am sitting next to an empty chair) and having a random car drive up, seeing its window roll down and a camera come out: snap! And go.