August 2009
1 post
July 2009
2 posts
June 2009
1 post
Donut City
I’m a bull in a country that takes “pride in perfection.” The streets are littered with tiny donuts the size of honeybees. People eat them, they balance them on the tips of fingers. The donuts replenish from snowblowers above the cityline. I speak with a red-haired man in overalls - he’s allowed his children to paint his house. His children are only mobile in the way...
April 2009
15 posts
History of Modern Music
In the Middle Ages there were troubadors, and they were masters of paper. The Blues were played in the South, and soon the young Carlos Crow brought this type of music to pool audiences. Teenagers enjoyed his ear, and they cried when he was on TV. Tears of embarrassment of course.
The Porpoises came to America and were even more popular. As you can see in their movies “A Faithful...
Zakir, Can You Let Me In?
Returning from a pursuit of home-invaders, I see my house is now inhabited by a different family. A long-haired Indian son through a picture window, in my old room, now red, about to kiss a girl on my bed, also red. A dinner table sits in the snow outside. A Korean couple entertain a fattish British lady with finger foods. They say very little, but she has lots to relate. “I...
Longyearbyen
Number one reason for five graves: we are appropriate. One grave per horse. I must say HORSE lest memory slap back, but I wish it were some other animal. Each black hole in the ground oozed black. Each encircling tree sapped black to build a wall against strangers. The crowd long gone. At first, the five horses avoided the graves, were a giant mobile hanging from a greater hoof that kept...
Some Creep's Brave Magic
A great, green, dripping peninsula detaches and is a ferry. Peninsula Ferry has its own beach cove, the waters of which are not subject to the ferry’s movement through the larger ocean. We pay to go into the museum, where I watch a woman cracking thousands of eggs into a large bowl. This gives me an idea - I whip up a bowl of strawberry cupcake batter. I slowly eat it on the beach,...
Good Wishes
Red peppers insist on being the flavor. For their pushing, I secretly loathe them. What a color. What a snip-snap color.
Splinter Transport
A new kind of public transportation. Picture some antique dance, a mass of people marching forward through a hall, every few steps a man or woman spirals off to the left - the main mass marches forward. I had to be careful which car I boarded, each successive car having a different splintered destination off the main track, and each only able to break away at some very specific point. And I had...
March 2009
25 posts
Sweet, sleepy bee!
irondavy:
Q. What’s the strangest drink you’ve ever been served?
A. In South America, there are large and sleepy bees and the kids wrap cotton threads around them while they’re asleep so they end up on a leash. I was served a drink that consisted of cachaca and champagne poured over honeycomb. One end of the string was tied around the honeycomb; on the other end was a live garnish. As the...
Is This About My Throat?
I’m in an acting class, predictably seated in the back. “It’s your turn to do the scene. Put this blindfold on and this colonial-style dress.” I do, I act the whole scene seated. I am required to kiss a leading man, who I can feel is covered in peanut butter and jelly. Over and over I have to do this, in service of the play, though I can feel each time that something...
The Past In Dreams
On an island, I visit a shoe store. A group of black girls are being led out of the store by the owner. He says they are not welcome there because they are posing as students. Once the crowd of girls clear, I notice YOU in a chair in the corner of the shop. There is a display of gold pumps next to YOU. YOU sit me at YOUR feet and explain, “I am sorry not to have contacted you, but I...
Dad's Lament
Will I be equal to the measure of death? Can I grapple with the big guy? How big? Am I big? How grapple, what measure, what move, which wrestle, how bloody, how muscled, how much thought for the baby?
His Planet, His Planet, His Planet
You’re one of us. We’re sending out a major love, and this is our message to you. The planets are lining up, we’re bringing brighter days. They’re all in line, waiting for you. Can’t you see? You’re just another part of me.
Secret Drum Brain
A cellphone has a special drop, unlike other drops, unlike in the swamp when glob drops down in the mud circling the whisper stove, or when chest flowers, seed drops down and what grows is a gut tree, or when beat drops down hard on puddingheads, sinks twenty ears, or, listen, never drop the glob of knowing if you take up drums, if you pad the puff on the drum’s machine, you will collar every...
February 2009
23 posts
Day Five
A trip to a mall, up an escalator. First, a tour of the train exhibit. A ride down canals on a precariously floating strip of metal, piloted by a tall man with a giant rod. All we see are the outsides of buildings. “That is where they build the trains. There the trains go to rest for the night. Train maintenance!”
Later, I throw a marijuana-laced, broccoli taco at my dream-love...
Day Four
I’ve learned to pilot a small, white boat. Only how I’ve learned is that I know how to sink it instantly. A man and I are painted like zebras, but our whites are purple and blue. We kiss. He shows me his face on the side of a kid’s product: a rubber band gun. In the picture, he’s grinning wildly, but I can barely see it through the plastic, which has clouded, and gets...
Day Three
In an apartment complex on an ocean cliff. No, after stealing that baby’s keys and going on a walk, I see that it is a hotel. The sign says so. I’ve only brought shorts to wear, and a short, dark wig. There is a special floor occupied by a group of long-haired men - some aristocrats, some incredibly wealthy musicians. They live there, the hotel opens up, becomes like a train...