5.24.2006

First Death

a.

The sickened are bedded and dressed in silk: they will die.

b.

Dear Lord!

c.

One of the nuns scurries into the street with her neck in blood. She has no head. The other nuns shake in sweat and turn and twist and look like logs on the ground. I don’t think that it is morning yet, Henry says. Henry has his face in-between the legs of a thin pale woman who cannot breathe. She will breathe, the nurse says. I know, Henry says. The woman is not a nun.

d.

Jesus.

e.

It is the earliest time.

It is before dawn. The light on the street is still and black and white and some of the light is yellow. Hank undoes his captured and fingered hands. Now, he dresses himself. Now it is first light. Now the light on the street is yellow and orange and black. But the light is only black where there are still shadows.

f.

Oh Joy!

g.

It is time for school. The school boys and girls are on the corner and the school girls hold hands and skip and sing and play with a jump rope and the school boys play school boy games and point at the girls.

One fat school boy turns red.

h.

The little school girls in the short skirts are on dope. The little school girls on dope sing. The little school girls tell the little school boys to go on dope. The little school boys have slingshots and knives and one of the little school boys has a gun.

But this aint no ghost town, Teacher Harris says.

i.

Oh children, Principle Warren says, it is only a mourning. The men and women in black are not saints. They are sharing communion because some little boy was shot in the street.

j.

Welcome to the first floor.


[s]

5.22.2006

The Tall Building

a.

Johnny and Jake start a band. Johnny plays the drums. Jake plays the guitar. Johnny and Jake call their band: The Johnny and Jake Band.

Johnny has a brother. Johnny’s brother is Sam. Sam wants to join the band. Sam plays bass. He should play bass in our band, Jake says. Ok, Johnny says.

What are we going to call our band, Johnny asks.

We can’t name our band, Jake says, there are three of us. Oh, Johnny says. Johnny is nineteen and he has hair on his face that makes him look like he is twenty-two.

You can get us into the bars, Jake says to Johnny.
Then we can play in bars, Sam says.
Ok, Johnny says.
But we still don’t have a name, Sam says.

b.

What is your name, the manager asks.

The manager is tall and thin and wears a shirt that is black. The shirt does not have a collar. Your shirt doesn’t have a collar, Lisa says. Who is this girl, the manager asks. She is my girlfriend, Jake says. Tell her to take a hike.

Take a hike.

c.

The bar is crowded with men and the men are drinking whiskey and the men are smoking cigarettes and the men look like they have not seen a woman in a long time. I have seen a woman before, Stan says. Stan is a man at the bar.

I haven’t had sex with a woman in twelve months.

d.

The band plays loud and there is a man in the band who plays the tambourine and dances on stage. The men in the crowd do not like the band and the men in the crowd stop watching the band and start watching television.

e.

We shouldn’t have told the man with the tambourine that he could play in our band, Jake says. We shouldn’t play for men who do not know what a woman is, Sam says. I am only nineteen, Johnny says.

Get out, the manager says.

f.

The band is on the street with the people who live on the street. The people who live on the street clap their hands and say: give us your guitars. It is bad for people like you to steal things, Sam says.

People like us?

g.

It is night time and the police are in the neighborhood in a squad car. Why are you naked, Officer Jefferson asks. I have a band, Jake says.

Jake is under a tall building.

h.

On the fifteenth floor of the tall building, a man in a suit has sex with a prostitute. You are a prostitute, the man says. I know, the woman says.

Get in the car, Officer Jefferson says.

[s]

5.21.2006

All the nice things like un-dead siblings.

a.

The toddler is two years old and he has a water pistol in his hand and his nose is bleeding. Don’t let him touch the men in the backyard, Stacey says. Stacey walks into the kitchen and drinks water. The men in the backyard have bodies that are not put together and some of the men are missing arms and some of the men are missing legs.

That man has no head, Jack says. Jack is nine and the school principle drives him to school every morning in a blue suburban. Sometimes Jack and the principle stop by the ice-cream store and eat ice cream. The principle asks Jack questions like: how is your mother and why didn’t you wear shorts on such a hot day. Jack likes ice cream.

It isn’t possible for a man to not have a head, Larry says. Larry points to the corner of the garden where the blue fence peeks out from the green ivy. See, Larry says, the man's head is over there. When Larry was six he buried a sack of coins in the backyard, next to the fence. Maybe I should dig them out, Larry thinks. Larry stoops and picks up a man's arm. The man has only four fingers. The arm is heavy.

Stacey comes to the backyard. She wears her apron. Her apron is blue and yellow. Stacey dries her hands with a rag from the kitchen drawer. Drop that man’s arm, Stacey says to Larry. Jack has dirt in his eye and he starts to cry. Is it time to eat, Larry asks. Where is the toddler, Stacey asks. The toddler is in the swimming pool.

b.

The plastic flamingo has legs that run in circles. The plastic flamingo is red.

c.

On Friday, it is Jack’s birthday and the workers from the store with the black writing still haven’t come to pick up the men in the backyard. The children from Jack’s school wear overalls and play in the sandbox and eat cake. The children from Jack’s school get cake on their face and roll in the dirt.

I think there are at least fifteen men in the backyard, Stacey says. Stacey is drinking coffee in her kitchen with Sally and Sue. Stacey isn’t sure how many men are in her backyard. The bodies are piled up against one another and some of the bodies are missing parts. Where did the children eat their cake, Sally asks. In the garden, Stacey says. It is silly to think that dead men would suddenly wake up and attack the children, Sue says. The three women laugh and hug and Sally smells like she was just making sex with the neighbor and Sue smells like she has not washed recently.


[s]

5.19.2006

The Once Boy

a.

The road is straight and has trees on its sides and the trees are painted gold and silver and made of metal. Sue is large like a whale. Her skin is white and she steals pennies from the box at the grocery store. The grocery store is on the river. The river is blue.

b.

The boy is called boy and he is thin and he does not like to open his left eye because in the summertime the sun is yellow and hot. Then I can’t see at all with either eye, the boy says.

c.

The boy and Sue are on the road and Sue holds the boy’s hand. We are close to the city, Sue says.

d.

Sue breathes out and makes perking sounds with her teeth. Sue looks fat. The boy wonders how Sue is going to be able to walk all the way to the end of the road.

e.

The bishop lives in the city. The bishop is holy and knowledgeable. The bishop has sex with other bishops and sometimes the other bishops have sex with boys that are not bishops.

f.

I have yellow skin on my thighs, the boy thinks and he decides that he will probably open his eye when he sees the bishop. I am tired of keeping my eye closed, the boy says.

g.

The bishop is dead, Sue says. The boy starts to cry.

h.

An army truck passes. Sue sticks out her hand. The army truck stops. Are you going to the city, Sue asks. The man smells like tobacco and has marks on his face. We are going to the city, the man says.

Why does the boy close one eye, the man asks.

i.

The back of the truck is filled with men in camouflage. The men have rifles. The men look tired. You look tired, the boy says. The truck stops. We are in the city, Sue says. Sue and the boy get out of the truck.

The truck drives away and the men with camouflage and rifles do not look back at the boy.

j.

The city is filled with birds and the birds fly around in the air and run around on the ground and the birds are white and gray and some of them are black.

k.

Sue and the boy walk to the tall building in the middle of the city. At the entrance to the building, Sue talks to a woman in a white and black gown. The woman is old and wrinkled and has tanned skin. Come this way, the woman says to the boy.

l.

The boy follows the woman up many many stairs and into a room with a big window. The city looks very beautiful and the birds look very small from the room high in the tall building.

m.

There is a man in the room with the big window. The man is thin and wears too many coats. I am the bishop, the man says. You can open your left eye, the man says.

n.

The boy opens his left eye.


[s]

5.12.2006

The army and the Colonel

a.

There is a knock on the door and the door is wooden and the knock sounds like the door is wooden and I know that there are men with guns outside. Sally is the youngest and she has circle eyes and soft tanned skin.

Sally opens the door because she has been taught to open the door when it is knocked. Sally is short because she is only four and she points at the tall army colonel who is at the door with his army men and she is pushed hurriedly aside.

b.

The army men come into my house with guns and the army men fire their guns and the women who are my daughters scream and the women who are my wives shriek and my hounds begin to howl and we are all restless under the roof.

c.

We are the army, the colonel says.

d.

The ten army men search my house and the ten army men make loud noises with their boots and the ten army men smell like they have slept in the woods for very many days and they have eaten squirrels and rats and made themselves into animals that do not smell good.

You men do not smell like men, Beatrice says. Beatrice is the oldest of my wives and she wears scarves in the afternoon and she sits in the chairs on our porches and she sees the sun set while the others are occupied.

We are not like the men you know, the Colonel says and begins to load his shotgun but the lieutenant has returned and now the lieutenant whispers to the Colonel and the Colonel begins to smile—slow like he does not know that he can smile, then quick like he is a king.

You have kept them in the basements sir, the Colonel says and the Colonel is looking at me.

e.

The colonel has hands that are marked by cuts and there is blood on him that is his blood and there is blood on him that is not his blood and he smokes cigarettes from soft white packs and he coughs and stares with blue eyes that have grown tired in the latter days of this campaign.

f.

We are not all under this roof. I have not heard the whispers of my sons since the early morning. There was rain in the night and the rain turned the dirt roads to mud. You have brought mud into my home, I tell the army.

g.

My sons walk out of the basement in chains and the Colonel looks at me and, again, like before, he smiles.

h.

We are unrested. I am left blind on all fours. There are screams in the house. Without my eyes, I do not even know if I am saddened.


[s]

5.10.2006

Once Woman

IV.

a.

It is in the evening and the woman is naked in the street. The woman has clean skin and smooth back and she has lined herself on the sidewalk.

b.

She is robbed and beaten and her flesh is bitten and torn and she is left in the alley to bleed and turn.

c.

She is naked and clean and taut and she has collected the pieces of her arms and walked back into the street naked.

d.

I am not dead, she thinks.

V.

Sally has a horse and her horse is called Holden and Holden is a black horse. Holden has strong legs and Holden can run and trot and gallop. Sally is white and has gold hair and she wears white robes when she rides her black horse through the green and brown land.

Sally is a woman from a house that has a balcony and the house looks like a big ocean ship. Sally has a father and her father’s name is Caulifold and Caulifold has a wife and her name is Sara. Caulifold owns land and Caulifold smokes pipes and looks at his land and says, My.

Sally rides Holden in the early morning. Holden makes horse sounds. Sally pats Holden when Holden makes horse sounds. Sally and Holden look like a white and black picture that is from a time when there was not color in the photographs. Except for the land. The land is green. When the white and black horse and woman are on the land the picture does have color.

Now, Sally is in the morning and she rides Holden across the small rivers on the green and brown land and the sky is blue and white and the sun begins to look yellow and Sally has music in her head that sounds like: Na-ha-ho, Ha-ha, Na-na-ho-ha-ha. Sally and Holden are close and they go on the land in the early morning like they are on the land in the early morning. The land is not man made.

VI.

e.

The woman looks dead. She has no arms and she is bleeding in the street and her eyes are still open.

f.

The woman has a scarf around her neck. The woman looks funny because she has no arms. The scarf around her neck is red and green. It is Christmas morning. The lights on the trees are white.

g.

The early morning Christmas goers sing to themselves and they sing to the town and they say things like ‘Merry Christmas!’, and ‘Ho-ho-ho!’

h.

There is one woman in the street and the one woman is cut and untied from her sex. Now, the greens and the browns and the land are not green and brown.


[s]

5.08.2006

Unit Sixteen

They have weapons and they shoot their weapons. Raul is hungry and he does not have a weapon. I used to have a fish and I kept it in a plastic sack, Raul says. Kelly has thin arms and she walks with her arms like she does not know that she has arms. I hate fish, Kelly says. We can sleep here, Danny says. They will not bother us now. It is good you can speak to them, Raul says. I know, Danny says.

The desert is in a country that looks like a square. It looks like a square on a map. When they were in the war room the country looked like a square and the desert looked like a hand—a woman’s hand inside a square. There is a lake close to here, Danny says. Danny is from Kansas. Kansas looks like a square. There were tiny green spots on the map, Danny says.

They have weapons and they keep firing their weapons. Raul doesn’t have a weapon. When did you see the map, Kelly asks. When we were in the war room, Danny says. I shouldn’t have left my weapon in the war room, Raul thinks.

Kelly looks like a frog and when they were in the war room Kelly grabbed Raul’s arm and said, Shhhh. And Raul did not say anything. Then Raul went to the bathroom and thought about circles and making boys and girls with Kelly in the back of the truck. I don’t know, Raul says. Kelly snickers. The desert is a hooker, Raul thinks. At least when you look at it from the map.

The village king is tall and thin and he smiles and has white teeth but he does not like to look at Kelly because she looks like a water creature. A frog, he says and laughs. She looks like the things that are in fantasy books, he says. The children in the village laugh and point at Kelly. Kelly thinks that she might kill the children because they are laughing at her. My father would be angry, Kelly thinks.

I would take care of you in the basement, her father says. Kelly shakes and she turns into a purple color and Raul tells her to stop shaking. He is not here, Raul says. Who, Kelly asks.

They are not white because they live in the desert and the desert is hot. They won’t give you water, Danny says and Danny is hot because he is in the desert. Your state is square, Raul says. It is more like a rectangle, Danny says. We buried my aunt in a rectangle, Kelly says.

Maybe we should kill one of them, her father says. I told you he wasn’t here, Raul says. Who, Kelly asks and shakes her head. Her hands are dry and cracked and look like tiny canyons in the high plain states. Like Kansas, Danny says.

In the night they still fire at them. Kelly covers her ears with her hands. Danny speaks to the man who is the king of the village. Will they stop shooting, Danny asks. When there is water, the king says. The little boy who laughs at you should die, her father says. You really need to sleep, Raul says.

Danny laughs at you.


[s]

5.03.2006

Urns

1.

Sue is white and pale and she has a scarf wrapped around her neck. Sue has her mouth open and she has her eyes open. Sue looks like she is dead. Sue looks like she had the color taken out of her by a large sucking hose.

Sue is dead, Hank says. I can’t close her mouth, Marty says. Johan Johnson closed Harriet’s mouth in the Steal, Hank says. That is a movie, Marty says. Oh, Hank says.

2.

Why are her eyes still open, Sally asks. Sally works in the morgue and she washes dead bodies. Sally is from Eastern France. Sally eats sandwiches at the deli on 32nd and Broadway. The Deli is called Neil’s Deli. The sandwiches have turkey and cheese and lettuce and onions and the bread is usually toasted. They didn’t toast my bread today, Sally thinks.

3.

I couldn’t close her eyes, Marty says. Maybe she isn’t dead, Sally says. You have cheese on your shirt, Marty says. Heather carries Grace out of the morgue and puts her in the car. I don’t think she is dead, Sally says.

4.

Heather eats at the restaurant on the corner of 52nd and Park. The restaurant has a green awning and the waiters wear white shirts and black pants. You shouldn’t eat steak, Marty says. The wine at the restaurant is red and tastes like wet sand in the desert. They should name this place, Marty says.

5.

Hank runs along the water and looks at the freight ships go in and out of the harbor. The ships are big, Hank thinks. Hank stops running and takes his pulse. You should eat more cabbage, Dr. Levine says.

6.

I take drugs, Greg says and smiles. Greg has no teeth. Greg is homeless and dirty and wears clothes that are old and have holes in them. Don’t give him change, Sally says, I wash people like him everyday.

7.

Maybe she is dead, Marty says. I want a steak, Heather says. Sue sits in the car and stares at the windshield.


[s]