Today is the day the suckers and losers—which is to say, everyone in the lower income brackets, who cannot engage in sheltering income offshore or writing off everything as a deduction—file and pay federal taxes.
I, personally, do not object to being taxed; I consider it
an entry fee for the life I’ve enjoyed in this country. I’m not wild about some
of the things my government chooses to spend its revenue on, but I figure it
mostly balances in the end. The construction and maintenance of physical and
social infrastructure, providing healthcare and education, a well-trained and
equipped military, foreign aid programs that support our strategic national
security interests, disaster relief here and abroad: if I have to subsidize the
naming of a community center in Alabama for some asshole ex-football coach in
exchange for these things, I’ll suck it up.
But I cannot tell you how much I resent paying taxes to
this administration—I hated doing it the first time around, but now I’m waiting
until the absolute last fucking minute to send my payment. Because not only is
the Kleptocrat finding ways to skim off public funds that even mafiosi haven’t
though of, but he, Musk and the Republicans are destroying enormous parts of
the government, in addition to ensuring that the billionaire boys club contributes
even less than it has in the past (and violating data privacy laws to enable
future lawlessness).
So my entry for National Poetry Month today is from Charles Bukowski, 20th Century German-American poet, rebel, novelist and subject of FBI surveillance (on account of his writing in an underground LA newspaper. The MAGA crowd would despise him.
ignore all possible concepts and
possibilities ---
ignore Beethoven, the spider, the damnation of Faust ---
just make it, babe, make it:
a house a car a belly full of beans
pay your taxes
fuck
and if you can't fuck
copulate.
make money but don't work too
hard --- make somebody else pay to
make it --- and
don't smoke too much but drink enough to
relax, and
stay off the streets
wipe your ass real good
use a lot of toilet paper
it's bad manners to let people know you shit or
could smell like it
if you weren't
careful
©2025 Bas Bleu
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