Sunday, January 6, 2008
Song of Chamatily
A large, interracial prole family, probably her relations, was sitting across from him, so it was difficult to stare straight ahead without the children stepping into his line of vision as they scooted in and out of a booth they had taken over for themselves. They went behind the counter to help themselves to more chips and did balletic turns and leaps in between.
A black man who must have been the children's father sat and stared at Tom. He might have been searching for a sign in Tom's face that he disapproved of the bond between himself and his brown wife or of his innocent offspring. He might have felt jealous of Tom's solitariness and apparent freedom to go out for tacos and beer alone. He was clearly troubled by Tom. Tom shifted his eyes to the left, and then to the right without moving his head. This did not shake the gaze of the black prole man.
One of the girls found that she could slide easily on a smear of guacamole on the painted cement floor. She decided to do the splits while slurping the straw of her iced horchata, skidding the spill under her shoe. When Tom looked up, it was a woman staring at him from the same table. He guessed it was the black man's sister-in-law or a friend of his wife's. The woman's expression was also disturbed, but it was more likely, Tom felt, that her concern was child abduction and rape. Tom's food came then.
He could not remember any previous meal that day. Morning itself seemed many weeks in the past. He ate the tacos like an animal and sent the rice and beans back because they were cold.
I Blow Life Out My Ass
"I don't know, but it may be just your improbability. Sometimes I go where life is least likely to be, and tonight I saw your fire. I also snapped the axle on my hooptie driving over some unexploded ordinance. Someone else might feel lucky to be alive."
"Why do you turn from life Tom."
"It's trying to rub me out. It doesn't want me except as a host, and I do not accept that."
"Life is all you have."
"Life is cheap. It can't afford me. Life is a Bolshevic revolution. It wants to break me up into small, poorly-appointed apartments."
"Do you believe in the Shiv."
"I do not."
"Do you have health insurance?"
"Only if I take the shiv. And only for pharmashiv."
"Auto Club?"
"Yes."
"What does your shiv priest say."
"You are my shiv priest."
"I only do Volca and sing. I am strictly ceremonial."
"I want to stay and hear your song."
"I am in a bad mood Tom. Volca did not go well. I cannot sing now."
"Maybe you can refer me to a shiv priest who gives a shit."
"Tom. You are a leper. I care for no one else."
"One song, Chamatily."
"Then will you call AAA and accept life's plan?"
"I will accept your song Chamatily. Life covers me in boils. I blow life out my ass."
"Very well. I sing. You bleed and ooze. We die together. Then we see about a truck."
Friday, January 4, 2008
Thursday, January 3, 2008
He Jacked a Hooptie
"I have dogs and my dogs are free. I didn't come up here and make a sacrifice on this land, move my life, so my animals would have to be in a cage. They run when I run, eat when I eat, walk when I walk, and sleep with me. I've got a big four-poster with a California queen stone, and that's where we wake up every morning."
Four fluffy one-hundred pound dogs romp in circles around him when he walks, and walk beside him in the colorful high grass when he runs. Kug's long blond hair all blows over one ear as he sends a smile back to one of them. Gray clouds are beginning to blot the sunshine and cast hand-like shadows. There is a faint mechanical sound, possibly woodcutters.
The dogs are suddenly gone. There is a screeching of tires.
"Pippi! La-la! M'Lady! Come!"
It was Juniper. He'd run down to the one-lane road and in front of a car to stop it so that he could attack the driver. He was successful in this.
Someone's husband was screaming like a child. There was grunting from behind the car, an Edsel, and Juniper's persistent growling insistent throaty message.
14. Time is a Liar
sprinkler on a wicca twilight
to some life forms, even in January.
Even in the Northern Hemisphere.
some idiot paid to have fairy sprinkles
punched into the lawn, but it's
green now. He's got leprechauns on the inside.
dapsone was good enough for a while
then they started getting pissed off and organizing
marchers of the truth brigade were brought by magic.
they had to start putting cameras on their body parts
to follow their trajectories. They called this
time. Heads on shelves tell the story.
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
13. Time is a Liar
Reptily was in her second day of Volca. Volca starts when you put the burl in the fire. The days cannot start until you have seen the sign in the burl. Volca has three days, unless you do not come to the end.
"I allowed my mistresses to become familiar and then chided them for trying on my ribbons vol. Vol. I wore the ceremonial slippers which hurt my feet because they showed more heel vol. Then I used your name in vain I said 'Ay, Mhthyuh my feet.' vol. vol. Eat my bones first vol beg vol."
Reptily shifted on her shoes. She was in a wedding gown and heels as a symbol of her marriage to Mthyuh, the geo-god. She was expected to perform these ceremonies, and everything she said was recorded meticulously by seven nude albino scribes. One of these had a red afro.
"Ilyn, what day is it. Illyn. I didn't say 'vol' chyle tell me the day."
Ilyn responded, "Your Volca has begun, Chamatily. You know the answer."
"Ilyn you gotta help me. Call me Rep. I'm sweat'n. I can't take this. Throw me a clue. Vol Ilyn."
Reptily was panting and her forearms were starting to slip down toward the spikes. She twisted her wrists around so that the binding would hold her up.
"Chamatily we bathed and robbed noblors together but I always respected you. Now we have a job to do. I'm not corrupt."
"Vol. Take Ilyn last O Mthyuh. Take him last vol. How I will prep his shivgrub without shivwash so to send him to you sooner vol I'm the one. Take me unwashed vol nothing harms you. Vol. Take Ilyn last vol."
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
12. Time is a Liar
"Mom. I have a big shiv tonight. What do I always say. You come and fall down. Please. Oh and you like your 6 mats behind the rope net. Far above drainage. Yes and I love you." Reptily's view gave her mountains and pink clouds that morning. She knew she would be able to get her mother to come to the Shiv and pretend to faint.
She was eating Blood Hope wafers right out of her communion kit. In bed.
"Mama this is the only way. You, free. We in two tall house. I help so many people and little children. And I got my papers. Everyone respect us. You repeat now few times, go to bed. Little children yes. Papers. Respect us."
Things had not yet begun to go wrong.
11. Time is a Liar
"Hooo. Cooo. Hooo. Pit spot. Pit spot. Cheese or Hawaiian. Cyclamen."
The flame sank down, peeked back, and disappeared into its lair between the branding-hot grate and the underside of the burning logs.
"I choose my gift to be..."
Reptily gasped.
The burl was spewing a rapid fire of sparks against several points on the rock, above and below the pot line. The burl's face popped and fell away hideously. The symbol was clear burning red and gave no sign of waning for lack of fuel. It was the 6 ridges and prostrate child. Prolabique Pharm-Supply.
"If it burns till sunrise, we are in shit."
Reptily slumped, rested her chin in her hand, and spat at the hairless dog curled by her feet.
10. Time is a Liar
She poked at the chunk of glowing wood and lifted it trepidatiously, as if she expected ugliness. "Yes, it's all written there." Reptily let the sandy, helmet-like shell of bark fall back on its tortoise legs of cinder. "Now it must burn up from the bottom. There will be a mark in the sand."
"All year, I do nothing good. I am a samurai against all best choices. I want this WD to break, and in her last flame, for the Mhuthya to roil up and bring home her bad daughter. Bad hunger to good. Vol-vol. God is pleased."
"All year in my pain I treat others bad. The world is my suffer. I am your food Mhthyuh, is me to take to your bowel. Vol-vol.
"All the days I eat I say I have something bad. Vol-vol. Vol-vol.
"I am only so sweet to get birds in the trap, and they rot. Because I have too am too much Mhuthya. Vol-vol.
"My children are lost. I have no children. Take my children. You are their path. But eat them last. Vol. Vol.
"Even temple mascots chew their own bones for me to complain vol. Even my babies have crawled away.
"I put my hair in fire to feed you, vol, I am gorged with lush diseases of lust and mimesis, horror and disgust, fear, misrepresentation, betray, go over, don't listen, TV all time, wastebag, simpleton, hypocrit, make death.
"I am fresh and livid and salt regret, vol. This day. Last day. You ate them all. Vol. Vol."
Reptily's spiny forehead rested on her knees now. There were more items, but why.
"The sloth, the fool, the reaper. I can only see myself, but I cannot see..."
It would be soon now. If she got the 2-spear sign, she could fight and run ahead. Trapped at home was a murder to her.
Sunday, December 30, 2007
If People Don't Retrace their Movements, Paths Cannot Cross
tell ya bout the pig its
a story of a pig, an
allegory bout a pig.
Mr. pig took a swim, took a
swim, Mr. pig took a
swim and on the way home from the
gym Mr. pig I
followed him.
I aint lyin that the pig
did a jig on the street,
right there on just two
feet, jiggin in the open
street Mr. pig he
did a jig.
I turned into a club
and lit up a cigar
sat before the far in
in an overstuff-ed char
and then to my surprise
in a mirror over thar
I saw two piggies dancing
in my eyes.
Mr. pig, Mr. pig
take yer dancin and
romancin to the sty!
Mr. pig, you gonna lose
When I kick this devil
varmint they call booze.
Mr Pig [the Mp3]
9.5 Time is a Liar
Peggy cradled swaddled Elizabeth in her arms and hugged spasmodically as she spoke.
"We sleep together, but we're too alike. Baby Jane Hudson and Ricky Ricardo. You're right. It's frightening. But that's the elemental battle between baby, even newborn, and mama. Some say it's a competition for life; I say it's just two hungry people. Goo. Ha!"
"You see, even though what we call 'moments' may seem to happen on a line going in a direction; they all end up right where we left them. I love this moment because it's as real as any other-- as real as the most famous or most important moment ever. You and I are here to share it. Let's limit movement as much as possible right now."
Elizabeth was squirming. She was already eight.
9. Time is a Liar
She stared back into the kitchen from the living room couch then for a while. Her day had been intended to begin on that cool linoleum floor. With coffee. Maybe sliding open that door to let the cat out. The bright overhead light was still on in there. But she wasn't there. She'd picked up the telephone and listened into it and now she was out of commission. Her day had changed. Or, she guessed, it was never her day to begin with. The day itself seemed to be oblivious, the same slow spin of the planet. The same constant tumult forward or backward, depending on which way you faced. She could almost see herself gliding between the stove and the fridge. Probably what she'd be doing right then. Yawning into the back of her hand. Stooping with a tiny dish of egg yolk for Kitty. Then letting him out the back.
The living room was dark and intended for guests. It really didn't care how or how often it was used. It was set for a strobe of activity, and the blank spots didn't count. This felt like an unexpected layover in a haunted ballroom. The two hours you spend in a matinee, getting surprised every time you walk out and have to squint and figure out who you were again. Tom was the unexpected one. He could be counted on that way. He was a professional variable. In fact, he'd been next to her right there, a few times, on that couch. Realistically, the only reason he still wasn't there is that he got up and walked away. Maybe he was just going to the bathroom or out for a smoke. But he just never happened to ever think to sit down just there ever again. Or at least for a long time now. But let's not blame time, thought Sylvia, after another shot of Teacher's Highland Cream. Time is oblivious. It's Tom's fault.
Kitty sat at Sylvia's feet, cleaning egg from his whiskers.
Saturday, December 29, 2007
The Boys, Oliver Wendell Holmes
HAS there any old fellow got mixed with the boys?
If there has, take him out, without making a noise.
Hang the Almanac's cheat and the Catalogue's spite!
Old Time is a liar! We're twenty to-night!We're twenty! We're twenty! Who says we are more?
He's tipsy,-- young jackanapes!-- show him the door!
"Gray temples at twenty?"-- Yes ! white if we please;
Where the snow-flakes fall thickest there's nothing can freeze!Was it snowing I spoke of? Excuse the mistake!
Look close,-- you will see not a sign of a flake!
We want some new garlands for those we have shed,--
And these are white roses in place of the red.We've a trick, we young fellows, you may have been told,
Of talking (in public) as if we were old:--
That boy we call "Doctor," and this we call "Judge;"
It's a neat little fiction,-- of course it's all fudge.That fellow's the "Speaker,"-- the one on the right;
"Mr. Mayor," my young one, how are you to-night?
That's our "Member of Congress," we say when we chaff;
There's the "Reverend" What's his name?-- don't make me laugh.That boy with the grave mathematical look
Made believe he had written a wonderful book,
And the ROYAL SOCIETY thought it was true!
So they chose him right in; a good joke it was, too!There's a boy, we pretend, with a three-decker brain,
That could harness a team with a logical chain;
When he spoke for our manhood in syllabled fire,
We called him "The Justice," but now he's "The Squire."And there's a nice youngster of excellent pith,--
Fate tried to conceal him by naming him Smith;
But he shouted a song for the brave and the free,
Just read on his medal, "My country," "of thee!"You hear that boy laughing?-- You think he's all fun;
But the angels laugh, too, at the good he has done;
The children laugh loud as they troop to his call,
And the poor man that knows him laughs loudest of all!Yes, we're boys, --always playing with tongue or with pen,--
And I sometimes have asked,-- Shall we ever be men?
Shall we always be youthful, and laughing, and gay,
Till the last dear companion drops smiling away?Then here's to our boyhood, its gold and its gray!
The stars of its winter, the dews of its May!
And when we have done with our life-lasting toys,
Dear Father, take care of thy children, THE BOYS!
2008 "Hot Pucker" Lip Line: Trademark of ProLabique Medical and Cosmetics
Coral Morningshadow
October Foliage
Pearl Membrane
Sutured Poison
Bang C'Mon
Dew on Ice
Sandstone Pimpernel
Marbled Rent
Offer of Tobacco
Plinth of Juno
Me Tomorrow
My Yesterday
Sweet Pie Raisin
Hummingbird Catcher
Sterling Sour
Getting Late
Patina Teacup
Pig on a Lipstick (premium dispenser)
Ruff N' Buttry
Lust Gorged
Peek, a Blue Pink
Sage Rub
Wicca Twilight
Feed On
Rainbow Scale
Sopped in Bailey's
Wrenchbreaker
Cohosh Spice
Hush for Cover
Pas du Cake
Secrets Kept
Minor Discretion
Wet Nip
Spraybourne
Clove Aureola
Paella
Shirt Caller
Filter Stain
Crystal Rimprint
Straw Dipper
Holiday Mincemeat
Chancre' Adieu
Beau Talks
Nico-Rush
Tan Taint
K-Dava Diva
Crammed with Grace
Berry Plop
Crematoma
By L'Wisp
Burnt Issue
Raspberry Gale
Friday, December 28, 2007
dapsone
i see that my only salvation will be living life in the present moment!
She stuck the note to the mirror on the inside of her lipstick case, put on a little lipstick, crookedly, and shut the lid. She straightened her lower back, swiveled on her chair, and opened Excel for Mac.
"It'll all be better when you getchur kids back."
Peggy screamed before he could finish his sentence. It was spooky Jim Sousa. He had been standing there the whole time in his red tie, his obscenely sensual mouth and glasses. She screamed a second time when it had registered in her mind what the second half of his sentence was. Jim was scared of Peggy too when he saw the look on her face. Everyone went home early that night.
The FedEx'd carton from Langley, VA went unopened in the Attendance In bin till late Monday morning.