Bad Timing (A Sequel). Paranoia, Feminism, and Poetry

these are things people can do to themselves they are: leave molotov cocktail on own yard set fi re to own house leave a glass of urine on own porch leave an envelope of feces outside own door send a butcher knife to self at work send letter to health department that self is spreading VD stab own back (Spahr, “thrashing seems crazy,” Response) The enemy is no longer outside. Increasingly, the enemy is no longer even identifi able as such. Ever-present dangers blend together, barely distinguishable in their sheer numbers. Or, in their proximity to pleasure and intertwining with the necessary functions of body, self, family, economy, they blur into the friendly side of life. . . . Fear is not fundamentally an emotion. It is the objectivity of the subjective under late capitalism. (Massumi, “Everywhere You Want to Be” 10–12)