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This is an excerpt from the middle of a longer poem The full poem is in Moschovakis’s forthcoming book, They and We Will Get Into Trouble for This (Coffee House Press, 2016)   ***   The government [should] subsidize struggling museums, theaters, and artists I [am] troubled by the eroding distinction between entertainment and marketing Protesters cause [more] good than harm A person [cannot] be truly spiritual without regularly attending church or temple Something like [the theory of natural selection] explains why some people are homeless If countries are unwilling to cooperate with our military plans, we should treat them as [enemies]   I feel guilty when I shop at a large national chain Social justice should be the foundation of any economic system People shouldn’t be allowed to have children they can’t provide for I would defend my property with lethal force The world would be better if there were no huge corporations Professional athletes are paid too much money   The separation of church and state has demoralized our society The ‘Word of God’ exists only as human beings interpret it We need stronger laws protecting the environment I would feel better if there were video cameras on most street corners It should be legal for consenting adults to challenge each other to a duel       I took a break from my condition to start translating a novel — a story about neo-Nazis in Paris, France — it’s set in the late ’90s, when I was living in Paris — the protagonist and I lived on the very same street — sometimes a place moves to the center of a life — the author of the book is politically on the left — my father lived through the occupations of Athens — three times his home was taken over by soldiers — the novel makes an argument about slippage at the extremes — how it’s possible to move effortlessly between far left and far right — it offers as an example one Jacques Doriot — communist mayor in the ’30s of Saint-Denis — a suburb of Paris at its northern fringe — my father didn’t talk about that part of his childhood — I never could be sure that my impression of it was real — there was one story he liked