The Virus

"Language is a virus from outer space, and hearing your name is better than seeing your face."
-- Laurie Anderson

 Among the dirty looks,
 the angry letters you
 are an oasis
     a pud
     a disembodied Glaswegian
 voice, garbled by the machine
 the voice of a poet
     an Ewok
 reply, extinguished
 we are 90% insane
 smothered by nothing,
 Freud, and Sartre
 clinging to data, corrupted.


(quote above is from "Difficult Listening Hour" on the album United States, Parts I-IV)