Viability

by Sarah Vap

  Our fuck descends in a heap. You say: leave it in the story. You say: don’t talk about the infant that way. We say what is relentless versus what is eternal. We say: what is eternal versus what is relentless.

  Weak Sister: An element that undermines the entire system. Weak sister can refer to either a single individual or a specialized group considered to be the weak link in an integrated process.

  Usually referring to an undependable member of a group environment, the weak sister can also be a malfunctioning part of a team-oriented task. For example, the slowest member in an assembly line or a slow marketing team which hinders the overall performance of operations is referred to as the weak sister.

  The flock descends in a heap. As a major part of moaning she may use, according to her imagination, the cries of the dove, cuckoo, green pigeon, parrot, bee, nightingale, goose, duck, and partridge—which can be accessed on demand.

  War Chest: A colloquial term for the reserves of cash set aside or built up by a company to take advantage of an unexpected opportunity. While a war chest is typically used for acquisitions of other companies or businesses, it can also be used as a buffer against adverse events during uncertain times. A war chest is often invested in liquid short-term investments, such as treasury bills and bank deposits, which can be accessed on demand.

  Index, lift me, raise me up. Index, I want to know you. Index, increase and increase me. Open the lid during this uncertain time. Radiate inside me.

  —John of the Cross

  War Risk: 1. The possibility that an investment will lose value because of a major, violent political upheaval. War generates uncertainty in the financial markets and causes many investors to panic and sell, which leads to a decline in prices.

  2. The possibility that an individual or company will experience a major financial loss related to the destruction of property caused by a major, violent political upheaval.

  Standard insurance policies do not always cover acts of war; in some cases, it may be necessary to purchase separate war risk insurance.

  Smear a small red spider, a cleaning fire. If the world begins with a word, it will end with someone reciting her memory—love lasts. The infant’s breath moves with my father’s breathing machine. His fat hand is curled tightly around the cord. My father turns his head, laughs in his sleep, gently to my son’s ear.

  Suicide Pill: A defensive strategy by which a target company engages in an activity that might actually ruin the company rather than prevent the hostile takeover. Suicide pills are extreme actions that differ from situation to situation, some of which result in dissolving the company; however, the underlying intent is to avoid the hostile takeover of the firm by any means necessary.

  Also known as the “Jonestown Defense.”

  And to the extent that the old planting aristocracy used the profits to maintain the real or fancied magnificence of the preceding century, capital was absorbed. Slavery made this possible, so long as the natural increase could be shipped off.

  They mean infants. When they say “natural increase” they mean infants. They mean proliferation.

  —John of the Cross

  Dog: One of the four categories or quadrants of the BCG growth-share matrix developed by Boston Consulting Group in the 1970s to manage different business units within a company. A dog is a business unit that has a small market share in a mature industry. It therefore neither generates the strong cash flow nor requires the hefty investment that a cash cow or star unit would (two other categories in the BCG matrix). The term “dog” may also refer to a stock that is a chronic underperformer and hence a drag on the performance of a portfolio.

  Daydream: There are two knives, one point-down, one point-up, inside the balloon. The kids were removed and rocks instead were sewn inside the wolf’s belly. Collapses of water from the balloons, thrown one after the other, against the barn. The infant is no longer the string of zeroes folded into the water, folded below the water. Water in drops, in strings—in this bag—it simply falls.

  White Knight: A white knight is an individual or company that acquires a corporation on the verge of being taken over by forces deemed undesirable by company officials (sometimes referred to as a “black knight”). While the target company doesn’t remain independent, a white knight is viewed as a preferred option to the hostile company completing their takeover. Unlike a hostile takeover, current management typically remains in place in a white knight scenario, and investors receive better compensation for their shares.

  The white knight is the “savior” of a company in the midst of a hostile takeover. Often a white knight is sought out by company officials—sometimes to preserve the company’s core business and other times just to negotiate better takeover terms. An example of the former can be seen in the movie Pretty Woman when corporate raider/black knight Edward Lewis (played by Richard Gere) has a change of heart and decides to work with the head of a company he’d originally planned on ransacking.

  In addition to white knights and black knights, there is a third potential takeover candidate called a gray knight. As one might guess, a gray knight is not as desirable as a white knight, but more desirable than a black knight.

  I didn’t know, when I’d never made love, the sounds that I would make then—like that, I didn’t know the sound of my fear: cry like the faraway animal. Deep animal moan from somewhere else and a quiet stay, stay chanted where the coin’s gold edge and the warm night meet. When I was a child I knew the details of each foal’s birth—the chestnut, catching her first breath in her mother’s shit-covered tail. Her hooves, still soft and curled underneath as a human ear, pawed at the dead udder. When the sun rose on her I thought: could any light be pale lapping onto this world. Could any surface glossed—a bed of snow, the bed of the river—fall flat against the world that holds us in.

  Sleeping Beauty: A company that is considered prime for takeover, but has not yet been approached by an acquiring company.

  In relation to mergers and acquisitions (M&A), a sleeping beauty is a company that is “sleeping”; that is, one that is ripe for takeover to achieve its full potential. A sleeping beauty might be a new company that has great potential but has not yet been noticed, or it could be an established company that has not been managed well, and is therefore not maximizing its potential. A sleeping beauty essentially lies in wait until a takeover occurs, at which point the company theoretically would be able to live up to its potential.

  You laugh sometimes, loving me, you are that happy. And the weather, somewhere. And the milk—it comes in around us. The children we still have are still alive. In the middle, love is temporary.

  There is actually very much fragility.

  —John of the Cross

  Lady Macbeth Strategy: A corporate-takeover strategy in which a third party poses as a white knight to gain trust, but then turns around and joins with unfriendly bidders.

  Lady Macbeth, one of Shakespeare’s most frightful and ambitious characters, devises a cunning plan for her husband, the Scottish general, to kill Duncan, the King of Scotland. The success of Lady Macbeth’s scheme lies in her deceptive ability to appear noble and virtuous, and thereby secure Duncan’s trust in the Macbeths’ false loyalty.

  When the infant is still in me and you are also in me and you pull from me and you are covered in blood, I am the blood and we are all three of us blood—then this is our marriage, held. This is our marriage, flipping and warm in the teeth of the infant.

  Furthermore, it would appear that slave prices fluctuate less than do cotton prices. This and the less clear-cut lag of the slave prices make it difficult to accept the image of unwary planters helplessly exposing themselves in a market dominated by speculators. It would make more sense to argue simply that the rising trend of slave prices coupled with a growing slave population is in and of itself strong evidence of the profitability of slavery.

  Infants and boats are profitable.

  —John of the Cross

  Index, deliv
er me. Index, could you ever hold yourself toward me.

  —John of the Cross

  Someone delivers the infant while hands wailing follow some other part. Hands of genuine sadness—hands spreading again, granting the body of our four rich handfuls. Earth, this infant is made up of you. Like you, he will die interminably. Earth, I hold myself open toward you. Infant, I am reaching utterly toward you. Earth, someone is holding the infant toward you in the ancient gesture of need.

  Daydream: I could say it as simply as this: it was never over. I could say it as simply as this: love is never over. I could say it as simply as this: fragile. Could say: exquisite. Could say: incessant. Could say: the body exploded into bits. I could say it as simply as this: that is what the teeth are for, that is what the bones are for. I could say the years felt fragile. I could say the infants have all felt fragile. I could say the light fell down.

  For a male field hand the returns considered will be limited to the sales of products realized from his field labor; in the case of a female hand, an addition must be made for the returns realized on the labor and sale of her children. Because of these basic differences in the production functions for the two sexes, they will be treated separately.

  Knowledge Economy: A system of consumption and production that is based on intellectual capital. The knowledge economy commonly makes up a large share of all economic activity in developed countries. In a knowledge economy, a significant part of a company’s value may consist of intangible assets, such as the value of its workers’ knowledge (intellectual capital). However, generally accepted accounting principles do not allow companies to include these assets on balance sheets.

  Index, deliver me from. Deliver me unto.

  —John of the Cross

  Could I say: the waters washed us clean. Could I say: the world was irradiated and then it turned to glass. Could I say: what counted gave birth to the Index, and we increased.

  —John of the Cross

  Invisible Hand: A term coined by economist Adam Smith in his 1776 book An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. In his book he states:

  Every individual necessarily labours to render the annual revenue of the society as great as he can. He generally neither intends to promote the public interest, nor knows how much he is promoting it . . . He intends only his own gain, and he is in this, as in many other cases, led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention. Nor is it always the worse for society that it was no part of his intention. By pursuing his own interest he frequently promotes that of the society more effectually than when he really intends to promote it. I have never known much good done by those who affected to trade for the public good.

  Daydream: I coin the lavender infant while what is stitched together of our lives, it approaches us. Then worse, the infant is blue while what is attached to our lives, it proliferates. Then worse, the infant is gray while what is severing from our lives, it also proliferates. Then worse, the infant’s wire cuts and the more appropriate faith, it spills from us.

  Slave-breeding and slave-trading were not generally considered to be high or noble types of activity for a southern gentleman. Indeed, many plantation owners would stoop to all sorts of subterfuge to disguise the fact that they were engaging in any part of the slave trade or breeding operations.

  At the marriage bed the places for kissing are also for biting, except for the upper lip, the inside of the mouth, and the eyes. Teeth of good quality are even and of the right size, with shiny reflective surfaces, sharp edges, no chips, and the ability to retain colors. You are coming into us who cannot withstand you. You are coming into us who never wanted to withstand you.

  Paris Hilton Stock Index: A stock index comprised of companies associated with the socialite Paris Hilton. Some investors conceive her influence on the consumer spending habits of her fans is material enough to give these companies a competitive advantage.

  The concept behind the Paris Hilton Index resides in her endorsements and product lines. Ideally, Hilton’s fans see her using certain products or releasing her own brands and flock to purchase the goods. As a result, the companies behind the products experience increased sales. Companies included in this index are Parlux Fragrances (who manufacture Hilton’s brand of perfumes) (NASDAQ: PARL), News Corp (NASDAQ: NWS), Time Warner (NYSE: TWC) and Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN).

  Daydream: A string of a billion zeroes in outer space or a string of a billion zeroes in water. The field is a field pulled up out of itself and this field will not help us. This infant had a father and this infant had a mother and this infant had a story and the story had infants and the infants were incessant and the infants were relentless and the infants were unending and the infants were interminable and the infants were insurmountable and the infants were not only the outer space or this still water.

  You didn’t marry me, my teeth trembling against the doorknob. You didn’t feel the same point of the floorboard, or curtains fervent at night—window open—against the low tide. I was moved. Moved to the same latched gate, the same turning, of me, away at the night I curved through. Like no house. It’s like no house curves through you.

  Under the tinny roof of Songkhla’s commercial port, on Thailand’s south-east coast, the imperial-blue cargo boat that brought Myint Thein back to shore is unloading its catch, barrel by barrel. The day’s international fish trading has just begun, and buyers are milling about in bright yellow rubber boots, running slimy scales between their fingers, as hobbling cats nibble at the fishbones and guts strewn across the pavement.

  To make the calculations in this rather complex situation manageable, the following assumptions will be made:

  Each prime field wench produced five to ten marketable children during her lifetime.

  The prime field wench was one-half to two-thirds as productive as a prime field hand when she was actually at work in the field.

  The wench’s children began to be productive in field labor at age six, with the males becoming self-sustaining by age nine (that is, they then earned the adult maintenance charge of $20 per year), while females became self-sustaining by age thirteen.

  The typical wench had as many male as female children.

  Nursery costs were about $50 per successful pregnancy. The maternity costs have been included in the annual charge for the children’s upkeep; similarly, the $16 decline every other year for the first few years in the wench’s own field returns represents the allowance for time lost because of pregnancy.

  No one was looking for you and then grew forgotten. Put the listening that reached you—no one was also looking at you. What requires you is exactly what you’d like—put the grim one, and then your mother’s soul whips.

  —John of the Cross

  Daydream: The infant’s head, softened, pushed down through my torso and out my vagina. Then the neck turning. My brains flowing. My bones softened and split apart. It is the gesture of utterly reaching.

  Where the natural increase is shipped off, where the infants are shipped off, where the people are shipped off, where the animals are shipped off, where there is reaching.

  —John of the Cross

  Wench, my love, my heart, as if goodness didn’t hurt to hold. As if opacity didn’t hurt to hold. As if pure goodness could not split you, hold you, and then force your deepest part.

  But these qualifications do not change the principal conclusion that slavery was apparently about as remunerative as alternative employments to which slave capital might have been put. Large or excessive returns were clearly limited to a few fortunate planters, but apparently none suffered excessively either.

  Where there is no excessive suffering. Where there is no excessive suffering. Where there is none, put suffering. Where there is no table, put food, put people. Where there is no table, I am inside the table of excessive suffering. I am in the gesture of utterly reaching. Did the Index do this to the table. Did the Index do this to the suffering. Did
none suffer excessively.

  —John of the Cross

  The membrane we need is inhuman. The earth we need is inhuman. The virus we need is inhuman. The algorithm we need is inhuman. The mind we need is inhuman. The mycelium we need is inhuman. The rhizome we need is inhuman. The animal we need is inhuman. The begging we need is inhuman. The prophet we need is inhuman. The increase we need is inhuman. Index, is this who you are. Is this what you are pointing us toward.