Hunger is Almost a Language

“I could pot one,” Isaac had said. “And you could probly wing another before they had your guts out and feeding ants,” Her father said. “So, for once, keep it in your goddamned pants.” Ida Eastwill would remember that until her dying day. She would remember the hot sun, and how heavy and useless the … Continue reading Hunger is Almost a Language →

I’ll Take Thirty Days Till Spring

“Did you bring his bail,” the girl with bright chartreuse hair said. She grinned. It was a smirk. “No,” “Obviously,” she said. I did not ask her why she bothered to ask the question. She sat on a high stool in a little room. There was a thick glass window between her and me. Her … Continue reading I’ll Take Thirty Days Till Spring →

The Reason I Need This Job

In the morning, OM and I walked to O’Maley’s for a job. Mother stayed with Too Many to nurse him along. He had pneumonia. We had enough for maybe two-three days to pay for Too Many’s room at the Tuck Me Inn. Doc Randy said he needed a couple of weeks rest, at least. So … Continue reading The Reason I Need This Job →

Endangered

What if a species was going extinct practically gone almost KA-BLOOEY and what if TV and the Times stopped midmeaning and maybe nobody anymore said three armed men or six armed men or nine armed men or anything about any amount of arms and what if TV and Time couldn’t figure the only possible something … Continue reading Endangered →

The Joy of Having So Many White Hats to Vouch that You Would Not Steal a Thirty-five Cent Notebook

I was arrested once. In 1975. The arrest was legitimate—I inadvertently walked out of the University book store without paying for a thirty-five cent notebook. Unfortunately, I had placed the notebook in my pocket to make sure it fit. Odd kid thing to do. But that is what I did. Unfortunately, I did not remove … Continue reading The Joy of Having So Many White Hats to Vouch that You Would Not Steal a Thirty-five Cent Notebook →

A Note on Noteworth and Not

It is notable that a person being born is faced with two simple but very complex choices. Should he/she succumb to his animal impulses to justify him/herself or should she/he rise above self justification work toward justice for all peoplekind? Examples of the self-justification person is everywhere we look. The guy who justifies killing an … Continue reading A Note on Noteworth and Not →

When a Quartet of Quarters Does Not Answer

A quartet of quarters is a dollar. A dollar does not sing, although the coins ring when you drop them into a vagabond’s fiddle box. And if, under the long shadows and orange light of morning, that vagabond fiddle is joined by a rag-haired guitar, a withered old crone of a cello, and a quavery … Continue reading When a Quartet of Quarters Does Not Answer →

Somebody Finally Tells Chesty

Hey, Chesty Deigndoun, sometime—sometime why don’t you just—get out of your insidious I, I, I; your primping, pouting me, me, me, me drama; your profane my, my, my orgasm; our salacious mine, mine, mine plundering. Get out of yourself, Chesty, and look up at the sun, and know it is not a glowing light bulb, … Continue reading Somebody Finally Tells Chesty →

The Losing Champs of the Universe

Of all the animals in this universe, the most ineffective, most inefficient, most diabolically destructive is that monster mankind. That we know of. There may be a planet somewhere out there in the nethers of space on which exists a sister species who is using their allotted two-hundred thousand years—give or take a million—to develop … Continue reading The Losing Champs of the Universe →