A post of Stephen’s from a year ago got a few hits today. I reread it and recalled a poem I studied in high school by e. e. cummings:
plato told him: he couldn't believe it(jesus told him;he wouldn't believe it)lao tsze certainly told him,and general (yes mam) sherman ; and even (believe it or not) you told him:i told him;we told him (he didn't believe it,no sir) it took a nipponized bit of the old sixth avenue el;in the top of his head: to tell him
I actually have no idea what this poem is about, but I’m going to suggest that perhaps e. e. cummings did not support the destruction of New York’s private mass transit to meet government ends.
the sixth ave el was demoed in 1939 and the scrap was allegedly sold to japan, where it might have been made into bullets. such a bullet could make its way into “the top of his head,” finally convincing the man, in his death, of what so many had tried before.