two quotes i wrote next to each other in my notebook three weeks ago then decided to post and in so doing maxed out the number of characters permitte

Glory, with us, is not for
lending out
so those who want take it by strength
or more often exhort it with a gun

We let them, knowing as we do
what men can take, what they cannot

- from "Borrowed Airs" by Kobena Eyi Acquah

That short-haired joy and roughness -
                 America - your stupidity
I could almost love you again.

- from "I Went into the Maverick Bar" by Gary Snyder