A Second Thought

I haven't left the apartment in the last two days. I feel utterly lazy and bloated from pizza and popcorn. It's after midnight and I'm doing laundry as to not have to deal with people. I can't say I ever want to interact with the people in my building.

I did watch a couple of interesting movies. The first was The Imitation Game which I thought was fascinating with a strong performance from Benedict Cumberbatch (best name in show business). Though I thought they could have incorporated Keira Knightley's character better in the plot but still a strong movie. The second was Gone Girl which I had been putting off for a long time. I didn't know which character I liked least, Ben Affleck's or Rosamund Pike's. The cheating, lazy and lying husband or the scorned and manipulative wife. In the end perhaps they are the perfect match for each other. A disturbing reflection on what the extreme's of a failed marriage can become. God, the hate we can feel for the people we once loved. I wrote the following piece in 2010.

A Second Thought
The ground cracked open and swallowed
Hungry for the impoverished and oppressed
The World braced for news of the destruction
One body was not going to satisfy its thirst
The blood of the poor is always drank first
Our eyes, our breaths and our memories
Rarely gave these people a second thought
Choosing instead to visit their neighbors
The Dominicans speaking their Spanish
Flying from New York City to Punta Cana
Not giving the Haitians a second thought
French is okay for Paris and Quebec City
But not for mixed “free people” of color
This was never a place to be interested in
Now the World cannot seem to stay away
A natural disaster it would seem is good
For business, for television and for now
Until the money is spent or wasted away
After all the bodies are burned or buried
Will there be anything left to be salvaged
Last year the answer would have been yes
Had the World came to Haiti to help out
Now the answer could very well be no
There is a lesson for the World in Haiti
Turning their eyes on its poor countries
Will only leave them blind in the end
Rich countries need to assist poor ones
Before there is nothing but instability
An episode of Survivor without limits
If the World had given a second thought
Haiti may still have fallen under rubble
But perhaps only ten thousand are dead
Not the possible two hundred thousand
Being piled up like logs for a cozy fire.
January 19, 2010

I'm currently reading The Girl Who Saved The King Of Sweden by Jonas Jonasson, a good followup to the very funny The Old Man Who Climbed Out The Window And Disappeared.

The Imitation Game

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2084970/?ref_=nv_sr_1


Gone Girl

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2267998/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1