Alan Vega of Suicide has died. Suicide’s music seemed alien to me when they first appeared, as my tastes had not yet expanded very far, so this certainly has no relation to the band or their music. This is just what happened to come out upon hearing the news…

I can’t call you out for breaking down barriers we didn’t know existed
My deportment cannot accommodate that loss

Spike!

Fatalism was never part of my worldview
cynical though I may be

Scrap!

Mechanizing the means of rhythm revealed me
as the short-sighted square who should have moved to the suburbs
except the land didn’t perk

Flinch!

I closed my eyes to all that was happening
until the revolution was almost at its end

Plotz!

Away from the pincushion penetrated by the darts with poison tips
sleep couldn’t come quickly enough

Smash!

Now the obituary will travel from screen to screen
and nobody will feel a thing

Goodnight, Gracie…

(16 July 2016)