MEN IN SUITS

A POEM

NORMAN FISCHER

B L A ZE V O X[ B O O KS ]
Buffalo, New York
Men In Suits
by Norman Fischer
Copyright © 2023

Published by BlazeVOX [books]

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced without

the publisher’s written permission, except for brief quotations in reviews.

Printed in the United States of America

Interior design and typesetting by Geoffrey Gatza

Cover Art: Lost Souls by Natasha Mayers

First Edition
ISBN: 978-1-60964-418-5
Library of Congress Control Number: 2022942735

BlazeVOX [books]
131 Euclid Ave
Kenmore, NY 14217
Editor@blazevox.org

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21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11
Sun time men in suits on beach (they could be women they are not) — opens
door into arena so many of them there then bruiting about [shout-
ingwavingarmshystericalcannonballs] grab everything screw everything
shovebreaksmash tearing off pieces bloody hurling manic all round spacesky
bloodred only muscle teeth bleets screech dominating front pierce no knowing
what/howtodo///oops world explodes or fizzles out on them their

n a m e s—

“names”. Fizz le

e. X. P. lode !!!

stupidly

they don’t know they had/didn’t have

fake names they were fake/fake death follows rattles in
throat metallic is fake / they don’t know / they blind undermine trickle of wa-
ter/seeps underneath/ /shore collapses/ ground they stand on/sand/ their brutal
enthusiasm bursting drunk on sweating muscular/rushing headlong bull on
blunt leg in wrong direction/ falling off cliff oops oops nearly didn’t know they
were in space, hurtling windmilling meaty

did not do not did not

hurtling

know(knowledge they have’s swirl of toxic dust’s there when towers

collapse

9
 (bloodred

sham n a m e s

Spell [double sense of that][they really can’t spell

(“But if I’m honest I say I haven’t thought of dying it’s not something that’s
concerned me in a lifetime of doing this and that I write for the movies write
for tv cop shows and so on whatever they will pay me to do don’t regret the de-
cision to use my talent to do so to entertain so to speak to write what they think
will interest will sell will be read the scripts don’t do scripts anymore just a
gun for hire writer writing for content needed for platforms script doctor
writer’s room sage it’s a job the movie scripts were aspirational to make art
people would see think about talk about would matter — art’s for the young,
the ideologues —but the exigencies of the business prevail finally as they al-
ways do life goes on you become what you become do what you do and what
does it matter? Who is anyone? Pays the bills. They eat the stuff up, eat it up,
binge. No high no low anymore. Smart is smart.”)

name’s a shame for them barely spelling stuttering stumbling all falling off
falling free in spacesky when sand collapses undermined by seeping waters
they’re not scared (ashesashes etc as children fall pretending to fall in their in-
nocence pretending to be dead or are dead in plague time with posies in
pocket)

Is that anyhow though they don’t know/don’t know they don’t know there’re
dead/enact tv irony

10
Of course obscured by text/script/script text murmured underbreath concludes/
closes/covers/ opens (as script/thought/vision/perception proposes to describe
events/set rules/ thingsoutthereworld as unfolds history/ social/ civiliza-
tion/sham)(which they anyway ignore but enact of course they know not what
they do ‘re compelled
[but text isn’t clear text’s naturally corrupted corruptible text misinter-
preted outrageously/ skytext eartext eyetext urtext earthtext timetext mindtext
texttext context nontext standing before wordlet wordtip wordcroft crawling
letters across page blind teeter leap off no word till mind yawp at word distill
bereft conjure]

How hard a n. a. m. e. can it be? [of an action, a thing, a state, a place?????

That would as such be otherwise???][simultaneous cancelling]

[and how think they know what textscript says ‘cause words’ seeming mean-
ings slide/elide so’s indeterminate no one knows though all’s clearly laid out
plain to see — but what’s being seen exactly/actually/’s not known yet they
think they see or know/knowing anything’s fakefakefake

they slither downriver

simpering

thinking unthinking they know

there’s no knowing]

11
 No handle on what you don’t can’t won’t — oops it’s gone from
empty hands that thought to hold — you smell aroma of what once was if it
was you can’t know or say — / falsely know/grab ‘n throttle

You

‘re

who, who, who? What what what?? And Now

What? [must parse must investigate but no they won’t can’t do that see no ne-
cessity for it]

there/here /inside/outside/compound opposites make preferences/desire/cling-

ing/pain in self in other mayhem even justified as flag/ideal/my guys us guys
we’re the ones real ones very fake stuff fake feeling/ slogans corrupttext

but there could be no perception no object no organ no non-performance op-

tion false/ true perception no in between no better or worded equal no objects
no minds—

Couldn’t.

what inky world

12
 what/ tiny spot

barely

or

never[not even that far]

that keeps happening again again/ repeating as sun appears disappears going
nowhere [lazy ol’ rolling easy round rather than human working constantly
keeping ends together barely meeting in middle backbreaking work in fields
say bending in sun too hot or stooping to clean floors then coming home to
children’s needs them crying/bitter wages low or lower when economy slows
wages go down or speeds wages go down it slows sinks/bloodred comes back
round does it again]

rolls

round

heaven

all day — men in suits pirouette in place

twirling roses on slender thorny stem

13
 take a moment here to see men pirouetting in suits in place twirling
they’re twirling

like roses in space

like dancers like lunatics

falling petals

wearing their hats

playing with their fingers

Branded [double sense of this], yet nonname invisible —— /cancelled

Mm mm. M flooded with (or in the)(L I. g h T)(like/link's L. I.

Ght)

However the music sweels, creests, raises up suyllables crashing down like
walls of water—

Dynamic ‘demusements’ deliver the gang the gun

14
In British cop shows they burst into houses like in USA but no guns they just
burst into house using yellow thick short battering ram whacking at door
shouting’ ‘police! police! police!’ they have shields but no guns seem not to
need guns somehow they rush into house without guns they think it makes
sense

But in USA cop shows guns drawn they crouch rush in with guns flashing this
way that way right left center crouching very tense maximum tense soon blaz-
ing of course if there are guns they will shoot people people will fall to earth
with bloodthud …….. shapes of blood on floor or carpet darkblood glistens on
cement floor makes thick rounded shapes there ……guns cocked cradled on
bent elbows maybe flashlight held above with other hand nervous shining this
way that way they shout “clear! clear! clear!” at each location nervously

But if not cops with guns the bad guys have guns guns flooding the zone the
cops must surely have gunsguns there’s thriving market in guns anyone can
buy a gun guns all kinds guns guns buckets of baskets of roomsful of guns

guns every which where always guns there————

such a machine that is a gun shooting bullets works so well does its
job you must love your gun for what it does gives strength power security
gun’s like god like that gives peace gives security your friend gun’s a friend
cool firm metal’s pleasing shape’s guns god made ‘em god gives takes world’s
agungungung

plots revolve around guns, cell phones, online deepstate deep dark
web porno guns penisphallismissilerocket guns dealing death destruction big
clouds light lasts flooding the zone mayhem cell killers I mean serial killers,
wheat, corn, rice, spelt killers

15
 if the criminals in the houses are disreputable Black people who are
these Black people what are they doing there in their houses one must rush in
to master them push darkness back guns blazing(lightflash from gun’s barrel

Black. Black. ’steep’ maybe draws one into names/reifica-

tion of names otherwise fall into it best to ignore

or kill

You could kill or

climb

You could fall off edge fall off it into free fall endless not knowing
you’re falling maybe in dream you’re gonna wake up in dream dream within
dream so steep could not see down into it crossing Kino’s bridge in snow.
grips handrail cannot see below

But so long’s you got your guns you’re ok even if you fall u go down shootin

16
The Poor Little Second Amendment

The text, a simple declarative sentence, could hardly be clearer: "A well regu-
lated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the
people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."

It is one of the curiosities of our age that such extraordinary attention is paid
to this rather obscure text, namely the Second Amendment to the Constitution,
since all it guarantees is essentially that the right to join the National Guard
shall not be infringed; and perhaps this only seems obscure in its purpose, de-
spite its clarity of expression, since after all this particular right hardly seems
to us now to be a right the infringement of which is likely.

It was not always thus. The eighteenth century clearly recognized the danger of
allowing all military power to be concentrated in mercenary troops or even a
professional army, as opposed to one formed from volunteers. Edward Gibbon,
describing such a situation as a principal factor in the decline of the Roman
empire, put it succinctly:

"In the purer ages of the commonwealth the use of arms was reserved for
those ranks of citizens who had a country to love, a property to defend, and
some share in enacting those laws, which it was in their interest as well as
their duty to maintain. But in proportion as the public freedom was lost in ex-
tent of conquest, war was gradually improved into an art, and degraded into a
trade."

So there was ample reason to guarantee the right of the citizen to bear arms in
a well-regulated militia, which is what the Second Amendment does. But of
course the Second Amendment isn't now interpreted as meaning what its words
actually mean,

but

17
something altogether different,

namely, as (somehow?)

guaranteeing that there can be essentially no limitation on the private owner-

ship or public flaunting of guns, of whatever sort, military or not, loaded or
not.

So we are faced with a chain of curiosities, the first being how such a vicious
distortion came to be, much less became accepted as legally unassailable; how
a simple, admirably clear declarative sentence became warped into the princi-
pal fantasy food source for the Obsessive-Compulsive Firearms Disorder, that
most characteristically and tragically American of mental illnesses; and the
second curiosity being that this distortion claims as its basis what is in fact its
antithesis, an "originalist" or "textualist" reading of the Constitution.

In our time, and more than to any other person, this is due to the late Justice
Antonin Scalia, who defined with admirable clarity what such terms as
"originalist" and "textualist" mean and how they apply: for example, "Scalia
described himself as an originalist, meaning that he interpreted the United
States Constitution as it would have been understood when it was adopted";
or, as he said in 2008, "It's what did the words mean to the people who ratified
the Bill of Rights or who ratified the Constitution".

Excellent: "it's what did the words mean to the people who ratified the Bill of
Rights or who ratified the Constitution"! This is "strict construction"; unfortu-
nately, if by this definition Justice Scalia was a "strict constructionist"

then Judas was a Christian.

Hard to think what more Scalia could have done to betray the god he pre-
tended to adore.

18
Let us then do the strict construction he advocates, but now

with actual attention to the text,

rather than in subservience to the ideological dictates of the National Rifle As-
sociation.

The first question is self-evident: how can we pretend to do this if we don't

know what these words actually meant when the Constitution was ratified in
1791?

Fortunately we do know quite precisely what these words meant, thanks to

Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language, first published in 1755,
which occupied in its own time, as it does now,

an absolutely authoritative position as to the meaning of English words in the

18th century.

To my knowledge, no one even disputes this, although once mentioned in so in-

cendiary a context as this, a conflagration of denial is inevitable. In the mean-
while, I don't know of any scholarly dispute, much less denial, of its authority:
for example,"The American adoption of the Dictionary was a momentous event
not just in its history, but in the history of lexicography. For Americans in the
second half of the eighteenth century, Johnson was the seminal authority on
language…" (Hitchings, 2005).

And so on.

Thus, back with confidence to the only point at issue here, which is, what was
the meaning to the authors who chose them, as of 1791, of the following words
: "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the
right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."?

19
Of course it is obvious that this text refers, and refers only, to issues concern-
ing a well regulated Militia; but what did its authors mean by "Militia"? Or,
"to bear Arms"? Or "Arms" to begin with?

By "Militia", did they mean a threatening private posse of wild-eyed gun freaks
brandishing loaded assault weapons in public in time of peace?

Actually, they did not. Dr. Johnson's definition is admirably concise; "Militia"
is "the standing force of a nation", hardly surprising, since "militia" is the
Latin word that "military" derives from to begin with. So "Militia" is the
"standing force", i.e., military force or volunteer army, of the "free state",
meaning the government of the United States of America, which is after all
what the Constitution, constitutes.

As to "Arms", Dr. Johnson is equally concise and explicit (Samuel Johnson, A

Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition, London, 1784):

"ARMS. n. without the singular number. [arma, Lat.]

1. Weapons of offence, or armour of defence.

Those arms which Mars before
Had giv'n the vanquish'd, now the victor bore. Pope.
2 . A state of hostility.
Sir Edward Courtney, and the haughty prelate,
With many more confed'rates, are in arms. Shakespeare.
3. War in general.
arms and the man I sing. Dryden.
How Paris follow'd to the dire alarms.
Both breathing slaughter, both resolv'd in arms. Pope.
4. Action; the act of taking arms.
Up rose the victor angels, and to arms
The matin trumpet sung. Milton.
The seas and rocks and skies rebound,
20
 To arms, to arms, to arms! Pope.
5. The ensigns armorial of a family."

So "arms" are specifically weapons of war, as is clear anyway from Gibbon's

citizen militia to whom "the use of arms was reserved"; thus, taking or "bear-
ing arms" has nothing to do with carrying guns in time of peace: it is to join in
or serve in war; perhaps, to cite an obvious example, by volunteering to serve
in a well regulated Militia as specified in the Second Amendment to the Consti-
tution.

As to "keeping"Arms, it is clear that service weapons are what is meant, since

that is what "Arms" meant to begin with; rather as in our own day, all able-
bodied Swiss males are required by law to keep their service weapon at home
so that they can be called up to their national militia immediately when the na-
tional situation requires a military response.

None of all this had anything to do with private guns, one way or another.
They aren't authorized; they aren't forbidden; they aren't addressed to begin
with. Whatever rights American citizens do or do not have with respect to them
are entirely from elsewhere than this poor, abused little amendment, which
simply sought to guarantee that "the use of arms was reserved for those ranks
of citizens who had a country to love, a property to defend, and some share in
enacting those laws, which it was in their interest as well as their duty to main-
tain."

And all of this is so clear - clear, that is, as to what the Second Amendment
meant when it was written and therefore what it was intended to mean by those
who wrote it - that it's quite difficult to understand how anyone in good faith
could arrive at the tortured distortion that is presently accepted as its correct
& therefore obligatory legal interpretation.

21
But good faith wasn't involved. It was the necessity, correctly perceived on the
part of its ideological partisans, to create a sort of secular Divine Command-
ment, so fatally radioactive to anyone who would dare approach it with other
than devotion, that it would remove any possibility of rational action in the
face of the fatal collective insanity of American gun religion and the endless
repetition of its horrifying consequences.
(Fb Post 7/6/20
Sean Thackrey, R.I.P.)

… but which “state?” whose “state?” or in a state … of terror… and why such
state need militia militia? Why insist on such amendment in order to accept
Constitution accept big state over maybe small state, collective over single
sovereign person plantation state???? (history there some history here corners
of history here folds where history is in cornersfolds never main roadway of
fake history script text names words fake forever fake fabric nations need as
myth history myth to glue contending peoples together so as to forget the
harms done to each the other so as to ensure benevolence of dominance with-
out seeing dominance seeing glue)? Grey states needing militias independent
of Blue federal gov’t they mistrust — for who doesn’t mistrust gov’t all any
gov’t??— esp when Blue who’s not blue? esp when Grey you got enslaved
Black Folk and sacred slavery to protect defend and maybe defensive fearful
night terror re this, of rising up Black tide of flashing whites of eyes whites of
teeth flashes up out of your dark nightmare, you made these people up! de-
basement of them ! so need to ensure you have militia run by your local state
county gov’t plantation powers big boys white suits drink in hand cliche fake
that will defend with flashing guns against slave revolt as of course — cf 1804
Haiti!!@@##$$%^&^&**(( — is gonna happen gonna happen you know’s
gonna sleeping sweaty turning over in sleep Black nightmare of just revenge
of inundation in bloodthirsty waves yes of course waves waves — so sleepy
time bourbon in evenings on porch as darkies peacefully work in evening fields
22
maybe singing low murmuring songs etc — right to bear arms bear arms arms
in militia controlled by mr. you not feds unreliable Blue feds with abstract jus-
tice notions ugh covering THEIR self interest mercantile who’s not self deceiv-
ing who’s not guilty who truly loves all as equal doesn’t need subaltern to
press on make money on cheap labor big fake …… ?????

Disproportion, disappropriation.aopropriation.reappropriation. reapportion-

ment, reparation, repatriation. “Nobody knows the trouble I seed…." guns en-
force it no man’s hand upraised… I got you ain’t got

(Microaggrestions daily drips wearing down rock steel daily disconnect)(goes

with guns like sauce

Ingrain e in them this feel ing according to the shape of them the size there’ S
no size I didn’t mean it take it back took it back, look I take it back why won’t
you let me take it now back I demand you take it back let me take it back grant
me peace of mind I know I’m good person good purse-on ——

They are large men —— bulging muscles — tone and trim, Greek something.
Rush forward assert selves shoutyell

notice floating bulbous penis bobs on waters slowly sinks bobs up

sinksinks…..

Never give inch not inch

23
Attacked attack back!! Boldly!!!!! Even more outrageous!!!!!! [but with the tv
irony no truth all truth so none so always deniability oh haha a joke some fun
some true some not well might be might be if if if maybe , what you got no
sense humor??but pummeling…

….and maybe then because of bad poverty dead parents maybe father dies
mother then dies Christian homes foster homes orphanages where’s kind-
ness?what’s one kindness? but survives someplace she’s a Quaker who was a
Jew parents lost Jews all Jews lost Jews Quakers then she’s hunting squirrels
to support them out there in cabin someplace in middle of — where?’s a place
there to be — surrounded by people already there strange in wood lots forests
there it’s dangerous she shoots really well (shotgun) squirrels sells supports
family, she’s a natural, gotta knack, preternatural shootin knack, good eye,
hand eye coordination, they notice what a shot she is she shoots shoots more
she’s a sure shot she never misses all kinds tricks those days trick shooters all
over the place at country fairs wild west shows she enters contest wins she
shoots better than any man she’s little dark trim she’s a beauty wears delicate
Victorian allcovering dresses shoots over shoulder behind back using mirror
rapid fire one two three four birds out of sky all over Europe meets the queen
later’s disgraced tabloids revile her (papers need this to make money excite-
ment you gotta know gotta talk what’re you gonna otherwise talk a lurid tale a
rise a fall a rise a fall a thrill to fall hurtling in space….) she then sues the bas-
tards spends years on this wins the suits!!! Then an old lady white hair still
long down back shoots shoots tells girls they oughta learn to shoot to trim back
sails of men accosting them in street shoot them gun’s the great equality as
mentioned in our documents equally equality since any flesh when pierced by
shot dies even dies even men in white suit on beach being equal means you
have guns can use ‘em \
24
Order a halt to this ?????? [felt hat]

sheep in wolf’s, lamps I mean, malbs, in Malibu,

beach there, sun, white suit, jambs, lambs, the sacrificed god the best

defeated God, martyrd

that the powerful’re
powerless
powerless powerful tables turned/ up’s down/weak’s strong/
yes yes good sell them that god
but keep in pocket gunequality
god+gun=good

SO IMITATE GOD’S SACRIFICE GOD’S WEAKNESS GOD’S A WOOS BE WEAK

SORRY SADLY IDENTITY WITH OPPRESSED IN GUILT/RECRIMINATION (AS
NIETZSCHE SCORNED)(PATHETIC EMPATHYFALLACY

(comes back to haunt you in dreams your impotence you’re broken/want then
to lash out at any them that in waking you say and think you love get names
wrong/dear Ezra Pound knows all this…. Its implication… correct names
[Confucius, Daddy knows, orders world])[all’s reversed reversed names re-
versed love the bosses love the king fuehrer capo love dat gun
25
He/She rising up haunting system reorg

loves the lovers love da love…

the

‘others’ as necessary ……..

TheyMeIYou
Imply
hearers/languish
If word’s mine then
Other [whodat!?]
If so reaching toward
Stretching far’s can/almost near/not near/ can’t touch clutch air
Yearn
Sadly alone but in calling
Reaching [where. where’s she/he/their/its opposites/if opposites yearning
stretching Gods the actual ones outside fake names nameless …]

Ordered in a framework such ‘words’ the word parts chopt splayed, straitened

Words enemies can’t trust need guns to shoot em trust guns ammo (rushes past
nameless…

26
 — wiggling free opening up still wiggling free of it……..

Whereverswhatever___currankling~~~~~ withering worms night time/cc T

not in place to T/

@@@where’s wordsparttaketothehillssssssssssss

#@!!*&%re-
sistance such frustration

nothing happens more of same huge historytide wall whacks ‘em………

_______________________________________________________________

Foxes at night nimble-footed, owls, racoons, deer (lots) fawns, mothers, tender
animal, unspeaking/wordslacking

27
…aching for belonging, what word would we speak ‘inn’ the stuttering (could
be empty could be no one lets them in could be someplace to stop anywhere to
take them in at borders they’re in cages
there
… the little words protect us their fake loca-
tions buffer)

Fog. vague. Vapor. No places in fog all’s close in

In haze of not being able to/distinct outlines tell who’s who where’s what

Stammering on heath stumbling reorg like a huge ship how could you turn it
on a dime big ship turns slow deliberate hulk of big power total of causes con-
ditions factors worlds on worlds thirty thousand foot thrones they climb up lis-
ten to the talk golden tree limbs clacking ..........................................................

Money at first cows or sheep but hard to exchange this when maybe you have
already too much meat you need thimble needle something small enough to ex-
change for them — metal then weights wobble scales non standard various
grades so coins (easier to standardize)

28