Let It Come Down (The Running of the Bulls)

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A Filipino girl is carried along a flooded road in suburban Mandaluyong, east of Manila, Philippines, as monsoon downpours intensify while Typhoon Nepartak exits the country on Friday: photo by Aaron Favila/AP, 8 July 2016

A Filipino girl is carried along a flooded road in suburban Mandaluyong, east of Manila, Philippines, as monsoon downpours intensify while Typhoon Nepartak exits the country on Friday: photo by Aaron Favila/AP, 8 July 2016

Lorenzo Thomas: Equinox

       It was an act of stealth
     And troubled pleasure

Wordsworth
The Prelude (1850)

      I

There may be other roles you recognize
   Sailors at nightwatch
Soldiers on picket

But we are shepherds now
And it is Spring!
 
      And we are talking . . .

OK, so we're not shepherds
But this is useful play

Like shepherds on a dark hillside
Drawing lines between the stars,
   We reach beyond ourselves
To meet ourselves

Or are we talking
Just to fill the space between us?
   To get over
A century that ends
   in fireworks
And worldwide efforts
To undo the future?
 
    Then we were dancing . . .

This is my real life.
The day is still wet
   from the morning's rain
Pavements begin to steam

Killer 1970s guitars
   rattling the dash
Driving west into a majolica landscape
The city in the rearview
   clasped by night
Abandoned by the sun

At best, a graveyard chance
   "Time to get your grip
& move on . . ."

¡O preach us some pleasant nonsense,
    Por favor!

Amuse us, O Lord!
    We are the audience
For your sneak preview
    of Heaven!

Thrust into this florid maze,
Trust curiosity
To find its way
To cleverness

A long-awaited legion of idolaters
Arriving after giddy pilgrimage
 
   Then came the prismed vision
As we saw the world through tears

       II

No, it is Spring!

Three days of rain,
   not Biblical
But more than this ground
Could take

Standing water everywhere

After 3 days of rain
They look like lakes
These fields near Hockley
   fields waiting for cotton
Corn or soy
Tract homes or condominiums
   Or little malls
Glimmering like fish-scales in the sun
As a sheet of egrets settles in
   beside the lakes
That will not be here
   in three days
In fields that will not be here
   in three years
 
    But we were talking . . .

Shepherds,
Or boys at useful play

You find the married men at 4 o'clock
Leaning against their trucks
   beside the road
Sharing halfpints or 6-packs
Or, in the city, at a cocktail lounge
Trying to prolong the day's escape

But there are others
   who are not here
Men
Who have years to speak of
Farmers, retired mechanics

Old men gather at breakfast
To direct the day into its starting gate
Booting the sun along a slotted course
Above the never ending shadow puppet dance of power
The energetic pettiness of mundane business

These high priests of expected disappointments
Raise their polyphonic song:
Life is unpleasant      but predictable

If this is solace,
   These men standing
up against the wall
These are the guardians
Of future pathways –

     But it is Spring!

       III

You feel like skipping
But the costume
Wants a more processional step

Will there be ruins where we walk?
Will our footfalls echo purposes?

Talking together as gray-haired men
   with the guy
You looked up at the stars with
When you were boys
 
And wondering if there's a God
   a girl, a goal
A meaning to the universe
& knowing now
   you really do not know much more
Than you did back then,

These conversations
Like a diamond's facets
Like sunlight on fields suddenly made lakes
The subject always the same
Yet seems transparently
Deflecting something deeper
More personal – demanding
More attention
When you think it over
As you will, inventing
What you should have said
Too late for that now
And next time will be deceiving

A boy's job
To listen to the old men's lies
And learn the music . . .

    A boy's job is
    To listen to the old men lie
    & learn the music . . .

I never been nowhere
Where the old Blues singers been

But I swear to my soul
I don't want to go there again

Lorenzo Thomas  (1944-2005): Equinox, from Dangerous Doubts, in Dancing on Main Street (2005)

Tawandra Carr cries while people gather outside the Triple S convenience store in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Alton Sterling, 37, was shot and killed outside the store, where he was selling CDs, by Baton Rouge police.: photo by Gerald Herbert / AP, 6 July 2016

   Then came the prismed vision
As we saw the world through tears 

Cameron Sterling, son of Alton Sterling, is comforted by hands from the crowd at a vigil outside the Triple S convenience store in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Alton Sterling, 37, was shot and killed by Baton Rouge police outside the store where he was selling CDs.: photo by Gerald Herbert / AP, 6 July 2016

 Diamond Reynolds, the girlfriend of Philando Castile, is consoled as she talks about his shooting death with protesters and media outside the governor's residence in St. Paul, Minnesota. Castile was shot and killed after a traffic stop by police in Falcon Heights. A video shot by Reynolds of the shooting went viral.: photo by Jim Mone / AP, 6 July 2016

A demonstrator in Oakland, California gestures from the top of a trailer truck during a protest against the shootings that led to two deaths in Louisiana and Minnesota, respectively: photo by Stephen Lam / Reuters, 7 July 2016

Diamond Reynolds is recorded on a cell phone as she recounts the incidents that led to the fatal shooting of her boyfriend Philando Castile by Minneapolis area police during a traffic stop on Wednesday, at a "Black Lives Matter" demonstration, in front of the Governor's Mansion in St. Paul, Minnesota: photo by Eric Miller / Reuters, 7 July 2016

 
Sandra Sterling reacts during community vigil in memory of her nephew, Alton Sterling, who was shot dead by police, at the Triple S Food Mart in Baton Rouge, Louisiana: photo by Stringer/Reuters, 6 July 2016

 

Still images from video show Alton Sterling as he is shot dead by police during an incident captured on the mobile phone camera of shop owner Abdullah Muflahi in Baton Rouge, Louisiana: photo by Handout/Reuters, 5 July 2016

"Stop Police" written by activists is seen on a U.S. flag as they protest on the corner of Florence Ave and Normandie Ave against the police shootings that lead to two deaths in Louisiana and Minnesota, respectively, in Los Angeles, California: photo by Patrick Fallon / Reuters, 7 July 2016

Tyree Johnson, cousin of Philando Castile who was fatally shot by police during a traffic stop, is consoled by one of Castile's co-workers at a "Black Lives Matter" demonstration in front of the Governor's Mansion in St. Paul, Minnesota: photo by Eric Miller / Reuters, 7 July 2016

A woman chants out of the window of a bus as a group of protesters demonstrate near a prayer vigil in memory of Alton Sterling, who was shot dead by police, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana: photo by Jonathan Bachman / Reuters, 7 July 2016

Stills from the video that Diamond 'Lavish' Reynolds streamed via Facebook Live, July 6, 2016, showing her boyfriend Philando Castile moments after he was shot by the police in Falcon Heights, Minnesota.: photo by Diamond 'Lavish' Reynolds / Facebook Live, 6 July 2016
   
 Demonstrators in Oakland, California raise their hands toward a line of police officers on Highway 880 during a protest against the police shootings that lea to two deaths in Louisiana and Minnesota, respectively,: photo by Stephen Lam / Reuters, 7 July 2016

 
Sandra Sterling, aunt of Alton Sterling, is comforted at a vigil outside the Triple S convenience store in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Sterling, 37, was shot and killed outside the store by Baton Rouge police, where he was selling CDs.: photo by Gerald Herbert / AP, 6 July 2016

 
A Dallas police officer covers his face as he stands with others outside the emergency room at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas. Snipers opened fire on police officers in the heart of Dallas on Thursday night, killing some of the officers.: photo by Tony Gutierrez / AP, 8 July 2016

 
Demonstrators in Oakland, California sit on Highway 880 during a protest against the police shootings that led to two deaths in Louisiana and Minnesota, respectively: photo by Stephen Lam / Reuters, 7 July 2016


 Protesters stand on cars as they congregate at N. Foster Dr. and Fairfields Ave., the location of the Triple S convenience store in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Alton Sterling, 37, was shot and killed outside the store by Baton Rouge police.: photo by Gerald Herbert / AP, 6 July 2016
 

Students wearing masks burn flares during a protest demanding better education and protesting the money spent on the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. With the Olympics set to start on August 5, the games and the city have been overshadowed by security threats, violence, the Zika virus, and a national political corruption scandal.: photo by Silvia Izquierdo / AP, 6 July 2016

 
The Soyuz-FG rocket booster with Soyuz MS space ship carries a new crew to the International Space Station at the Russian-leased Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan: photo by Dmitri Lovetsky / AP, 7 July 2016
   
 
Indian Muslims offer Eid al-Fitr prayers at the 14th century Ferozeshah Kotla Jami Mosque in New Delhi, India. Eid al-Fitr marks the end of the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan.: photo by Manish Swarup / AP, 7 July 2016

 
Lightning flashes west of the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, the Luxor Hotel and Casino, and the Excalibur Hotel and Casino on the Las Vegas Strip. Two days of monsoon thunderstorms brought strong winds, hail, and heavy rain to parts of the valley causing street flooding and power outages.: photo by Ethan Miller, 2 July 2016

 
People light candles inside a mall at the scene of a massive truck bomb attack in Karada neighborhood, Baghdad, Iraq. Iraqis mourn for their dead and prepare for the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr under the pall of one the worst bombings in 13 years of war. An Islamic State suicide bomber struck Baghdad's bustling commercial area of Karada on Sunday night after iftar, the nightly breaking of the fast.: photo by Hadi Mizban / AP, 5 July 2016
 

 A demonstrator kicks a riot police vehicle during a march by the Chilean student federations to protest against the government's education reform, in Santiago, Chile: photo by Ivan Alvarado / Reuters, 5 July 2016


 Two newly discovered mountain lion kittens, one of two separate litters found in the eastern Santa Susana Mountains near Los Angeles, California, U.S., are shown in their den in this handout photo released to Reuters: photo by Reuters, 6 July 2016


 The Radio City Rockettes perform "Finale" in the 2016 New York Spectacular at Radio City Music Hall in New York. The show is running now through August 7, 2016.: photo by Timothy A. Clary / AFP, 6 July 2016


  A Somali boy plays with a toy model of a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) after attending Eid al-Fitr prayers to mark the end of the fasting month of Ramadan in Somalia's capital Mogadishu: photo by Feisal Omar / Reuters, 6 July 2016


 Spectators watch from balconies as participants run ahead of unseen bulls on the first day of the San Fermin bull run in Pamplona, northern Spain. On each day of the festival, six bulls are released at 8:00 a.m. to run from their corral through the narrow, cobbled streets of the old town over an 850-meter course. Ahead of them are the runners, who try to stay close to the bulls without falling over or being gored.: photo by Pedro Armestre, 7 July 2016








Water is thrown onto revelers, during the launch of the 'Chupinazo' rocket, to celebrate the official opening of the 2016 San Fermin Fiestas, in Pamplona, northern Spain. Revelers from around the world kick off the festival with a messy party in the Pamplona town square, one day before the first of eight days of the running of the bulls.: photo by Alvaro Barrientos / AP, 6 July 2016

A woman with her face covered by theatrical blood takes part in a protest against bull runs in front of the City Hall on the eve of the famous San Fermin festival, in Pamplona, northern Spain: photo by Alvaro Barrientos / AP, 5 July 2016

A runner is thrown by a Cebada Gago fighting bull at Estafeta corner during the second running of the bulls at the San Fermin festival in Pamplona, northern Spain on Monday: photo by Eloy Alonso/Reuters, 8 July 2016



A runner is thrown by a Cebada Gago fighting bull at Estafeta corner during the second running of the bulls at the San Fermin festival in Pamplona, northern Spain on Monday: photo by Eloy Alonso/Reuters, 8 July 2016

 
In other battles, animal rights protestors demonstrate against #Sanfermin2016 #runningofthebulls #Pamplonamegusta: image via Kim Dozier @KimDozier, 5 July 2016 

Charging bulls injured 14 people during the annual San Fermin festival in the northern Spanish city of Pamplona, local officials said. Those hurt as bulls were let loose through the city's narrow streets included four US citizens, an Indian, a Portuguese a Briton and a South African, according to the local government. As often happens, on Friday bulls tossed several people into the air and pinned others to the ground as participants pulled their tails and grabbed their horns.  Here, a runner falls in front of a Cebada Gago ranch bull along Estafeta street during the second running of the bulls.: photo by Reuters, 8 July 2016

 

A 58-year-old Spaniard, a 73-year-old South African man and a Canadian aged 48, were in serious condition after being gored, a government statement said. Three Americans and an Indian were gored but their injuries were reported to be less serious. Here, One man tries his luck.: photo by REX via Mirror Online, 8 July 2016

 

The nine-day fiesta became world famous with Ernest Hemingway's silly 1926 novel The Sun Also Rises and annually attracts thousands of foreign tourists to enjoy the ritual killing of sixty bulls. Here, well oiled with alcohol and inflated by cowardly foolishness, the crowd of rich idiots gathers as the bull charges. Runners dash along with six bulls down a narrow 930-yard course from a holding pen to Pamplona's bull ring. The bulls later face almost certain death in afternoon bullfights.: photo by REX via Mirror Online, 8 July 2016 

 

 
One panicked runner, American Cindi Campbell, had a close call when she fell as one of the bulls ran behind her. Here, a man hangs on to the bull while other tourists flee.: photo by Ruben Albarran/REX/Shutterstock via Mirror Online, 8 July 2016 
 

 

A man tried to protect her on the ground while husband Marshall Campbell pulled the beast away by the horn. "This was my first and last time," said 53-year-old Ms Campbell, an accountant from Cave Creek, Arizona, who sprained her foot.She said she had watched her husband and friend running on Thursday and thought the bulls would just pass her by.: The first one did but a second made a go for her. Here, tourists are seen lying in the street.: photo by Ruben Albarran/REX/Shutterstock via Mirror Online, 8 July 2016 
 

 

"I'm lucky to be alive actually," she said. "I still say I'm glad I did it. Because if I hadn't done it I would regret it." Here, one man tries to get out of the way.: photo by Ruben Albarran/REX/Shutterstock via Mirror Online, 8 July 2016 

 

Another is not so lucky. One beast repeatedly tossed a man about before being lured away by other runners. More than 1,000 people took part in the run, which lasted nearly six minutes, more than twice the normal running time. The bulls used weighed 1,170lb to 1,430lb.: photo by Ruben Albarran/REX/Shutterstock via Mirror Online, 8 July 2016

 

The crowd at the festival. Ten people were gored in the San Fermin festival last year. In all, 15 have died from being gored since record-keeping began in 1924.: photo by Ruben Albarran/REX/Shutterstock via Mirror Online, 8 July 2016

Spectators watch Fourth of July fireworks at Ault Park in Cincinnati, Ohio: photo by John Minchillo / AP, 4 July 2016

 Muslims pray in a public park to mark the end of the holy month of Ramadan, known as Eid al Fitr, in Manila, Philippines.: photo by Bullit Marquez / AP, 6 July 2018

Sara Errani of Italy serves partnering Oksana Kalashnikova of Georgia during their Women's Doubles first round match against Michaella Krajicek and Michaella Krajicek of Holland during day six of the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championships at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, July 2, 2016, in London, England.: photo by Jordan Mansfield, 2 July 2016

INDIA - Muslims offer Eid prayers on occasion of Eid al-Fitr festival at Kharudin Mosque in Amritsar. By @nanuworld: image via AFP Photo Department @AFPphoto, 7 July 2016

 Indian Muslims offer Eid prayers on a street in the Masab Tank Area of Hyderabad @AFP @AFPphoto: image via Noah Seelam @noahseelam, 7 July 2016

     

Report: At Least 181 Clinton Foundation Donors Also Lobbied Hillary's State Department: image via Townhall, 8 July 2016

State Dept. to reopen #Clinton email investigation: image via RT Verified account @RT_com, 7 July 2016

 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton looks back at the faded sign of the former Trump Plaza as she speaks in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Trump Plaza closed permanently on September 16, 2014.: photo by Mel Evans / AP, 6 July 2016

 
UKRAINE - Girls jump over a bonfire during the Ivana Kupala night in Pyrogove. By Sergei Supinsky #AFP: image via AFP Photo Department @AFPphoto, 7 July 2016

Girls attend a celebration for Ivan Kupala Day in Kiev, Ukraine. An ancient tradition originating from pagan times, the holiday is usually marked with grand overnight festivities during which people sing and dance around campfires, believing it will purge them of their sins and make them healthier:  photo by Gleb Garanich / Reuters, 6 July 2016

 
Employees save pigs from a flooded farm in Lu'an, Anhui Province, China: photo by China Stringer Network / Reuters, 5 July 2016
 

A general view shows the swollen Liujiang River in Liuzhou, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, July 5, 2016. Flooding in China's Yangtze river basin has left 112 people dead or missing in recent days, with more damage feared from a typhoon expected to land within days: photo by AFP, 5 July 2016

  
A boy stands under an overflowing dam along the Powai lake after heavy rains in Mumbai, India: photo by Gerald Herbert / AP, 6 July 2016