Arts Eradication Program Fails

I said in a column that the program to wipe out artists

in South Florida had failed because I fled the dragnet

and moved to Northwest Florida before they could defang me.

I called the people who won fine arts grants defanged artists.

Lapdogs, with no teeth. Almost winning a grant had scared me.

What if I had won? I couldn’t say that no one ever helped me.

I would be giving up my right to say that for $2,500. I had my price,

but it wasn’t that low. I quit applying. I quit applying to the NEA, too.

Those grants go to Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe.

Good for them. I am better off here in Point and Shoot,

in my wife’s old home place. Never having to leave

my basement. I am a troll. A troglodyte.

Too late the misanthrope.

A day late and

a dollar short.