Tag Archives: The Wire

CONTEMPLATING THE DECLINING PERCENTAGE OF INVESTMENT IN HIGHER EDUCATION AND IN PARTICULAR LEGISLATORS AND GOVERNORS WHO NEVERTHELESS CHEER HARD FOR THEIR SPORTS TEAMS, WHILE ALSO MULLING THE CURIOUS MANEUVERS OF UNIVERSITY LEADERSHIP THAT MAY OR MAY NOT YIELD GOOD RESULTS FOR THOSE OF US IN THE TRENCHES, SO TO SPEAK

—a found poem using direct quotes from the first season of The Wire

The game is rigged. But you can’t lose if you don’t play.
You don’t hand no money to nobody that matters,
you don’t get no product from nobody that matters.
We ain’t got shit. But is there any other fucking way?

You start to follow the money, you don’t know
where the fuck it’s going to take you. Shit.
I’m starting to worry more about the ones that claim
to love me than the ones that don’t.

You come at the king, you best not miss.
You know something? You’re no good for people, man.
I mean, damn, everybody around you. Christ.
You’re back from the dead. You rolled away the stone.

All I know is I just love the job. I know the shit is weak
but shit is weak all over. Cool. Whatever. Shit. Fuck.
Fuck fuck fuck fuck fucker motherfucker fuck me.
So you write everything down? Yeah. Everything.

Sparrow on barbed wire. By See-ming Lee from Flickr, Creative Commons

Sparrow on barbed wire. By See-ming Lee from Flickr, Creative Commons

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If you want a good voice that isn’t quoting lines from The Wire, check out Chuck Rybak’s Sad Iron blog.