In Among the Gliesians, Philip Fried continues experimenting with different registers of language, technical jargon, and a variety of literary and non-literary forms, ranging from sonnet, ballad, acrostic, and villanelle to press release and report. His witty and compassionate work takes on a new urgency, however, as he focuses on our alarming present situation. Dealing with such topical themes as mass shootings, nuclear gamesmanship, and threats to democracy, Fried’s poems reveal a struggle for meaningful expression when meaning itself is under attack. In the section giving its title to the book, reports on an extraterrestrial society hold up a mirror to our own culture.
I. Seven Rounds
Man’s Best Friend 11
What Goes Around ... 12
“Print the Legend” 13
How Often Must We Repeat ... 14
Jumping the Gun 15
Creative Policing 16
Voice 18
II. Among the Gliesians
A Planetary Pastime 21
A Favorite Indoor Sport 22
A Graveyard of Past Futures 23
A Singular Sect 24
An Ethnographic Fieldnote 25
An Issue for Further Research 26
An Age of Diplomacy 27
III. Operating on the Body Politic
Fabricating Uncertainty 31
Redaction 32
Spin 33
The Wheel of Good Fortune 34
“It began to manifest” 35
Operating on the Body Politic 37
Rumpelstilskin Rebrand 38
“The midnight snacker in harlequin pj’s” 39
Deepfake ... 40
Twin Statues 41
1. Statue of the Leader as Perseus 41
2. Statue of the Leader as Saint Sebastian 41 Wordslide 42
The Wall (running the changes) 43
Walleyed. See also ... 44
Then the Lord Answered Job Out of the Tweetstorm 45
The Speech of My Life 46
IV. What is Torture?
Twa Pixels 49
“In the Museum ...” 50
Cairn 51
Breakthrough in a Brainstorming Session 52
“Loudspeaker’s piercing treble” 53
These Days, War 54
Words for a Cenotaph for Words 55
The New Arcimboldo 57
Boutique Warfare 58
High-End Germanic Forest 59
The Kill Shelter 60
Sunday in the Park 61
V. Rules of the Game
Sending a Clear and Unmistakable Message 65
The Loss of Little Boy 66
Nuclear Croquet 67
Nuclear Etiquette 68
Nuclear Volleyball 69
Forecast 70
Le Dernier Cri 71
Singularities in Everyday Life 72
Diary of a Transformed Deity 73
Old Man Icarus 74
The Battle of the Bulge 75
Notes 77
Acknowledgments 78
About the Author 80
