Tyson Media Inc

The openings were important, practical, imposing: Large. The eggs were white. The smallest river inside the colonial jurisdiction was Prudence. They named a river prudence? Hank: short, balding, typical, forgetting, noticeably forgotten—he asked the question, coy, out of place. The media staged a sit-in, refused to report unless given advance opinions and stories. ESP, Hinton muttered. Fucking ESP. The sports channel? Yeah, the sports channel. The eggs cracked and small rapid dinosaurs appeared, waddled. They had beaks like ducks. No, she whispered, they taped their cameras to the ceiling. This is an advanced story. Not advanced—advance, you know before it happens.

And that was just the end of the world.

The trash agency enlisted local and then national support for their campaign. Volunteers then members then citizens. Citizens decidedly against (anti) the missile defense system, the homeless shelter initiative, and the world education platform. In a sprint, the agency, the trash agency, unlike the hollywood spin-offs, was actually the trash agency. Zealots circling the islands to the north and the south. You see: the earth was flat.

Like a piece of toast.

The earth was flat and burnt? That is ESP, Hannah agreed. Her camera was on the ceiling. She was eaten by dinosaurs, small rapid dinosaurs. No, the agency enlisted volunteers and they found an island, it is the end of the earth. The earth is flat. They are peeling back time and depositing trash, Sal mentioned, casually, awkwardly, un-athletic. A trainer, then a lifter, then, later, agile, a telecommunicator. Sounds important, significant, vital. Large, Henry states. It would be large. A grand opening of a media tycoon’s firm, property, publication. Like a watermelon. She giggled because she is fat and unused and expendable. Written over, Lilly suggests.

No, the investment was wise. It is nothing past the fifth island, Dan noted. Nothing? Well, an edge and then nothing—nothing at all. Peel back the earth and put the trash there then. It wasn’t a question, a pondering insecurity. No, peel back the earth. It is the way to time travel. If the earth is flat. The earth is flat. It erases the time and now it’s being peeled back. Yes, because of the trash. She was dense, too dense. She taped her camera to the ceiling.

ESP isn’t really a gift. Unless the sun is suddenly attracted to the earth and comes spinning and sprinting out of space. The eggs are white. The eggs weren’t ever white. There isn’t anything under the trash and still they are peeling it back. George detaches his camera from the ceiling and tapes the dinosaurs eating the other reporters. The openings were huge and important:

TYSON LAUNCHES NEW WORLD INQUIRY.

family

we rounded up the wind and put it in a coral.

we took turns pushing swings toward the sun, then back.

you bruised your face and it looked like a very beautiful sunrise. you decide you like it better that way, but it won't stay.

"That," said Dad, "is life."

*

we had chores:

-the rotten vegetables go to the compost

-wash and wipe the windows with windex

-write one a story each day

*

Story 1:

The lizard swam back in forth in the bathtub. "Iguana," he corrected, and she made a mental note. They never had pets like this before. Both of them, Sam and Spike, had strange eyes and moved like little dinosaurs. When they died quick and in sucession, the father buried them in the backyard and said, "They weren't good pets."

*

we cleaned up after ourselves and never ate breakfast late. we tried our best to be ourselves but it was hard sometimes, to know how to be. "If I am not myself, who am I?" you asked. We played a game called Pretend and Pretended to be: robots; soldiers; people in space; monsters; families; princes and knights. At night we dreamt of looney tunes and for one week I accurately foresaw which episode they would run next, right there in bed. You said, "What if you only get so much psychic power, and you used yours all up?" We laughed and laughed and maybe it was true.

*

Story 2:

He wished for a toy. He wished for a game to play on his computer. He wished to kiss Kate, Jenny, and Kerrie. He wished to not move away, it was hard enough to find a friend the first time. He was very worried that if he said the wish the wrong way that the universe would interpret his words wrong.

Years later, he saw how the wish, as he worded it, was the problem all along.

*

If Dad had been a writer, owned a laundromat, worked at a pet store, what might have been? He tried all those things, plus selling disposable dental tools, and digital clocks w/letter opener. What if you only get so much time, and then you use it all up? It was hard to be yourself in our house. When we Pretended Sam and Spike were pets, they died and no wishing brought them back. Sometimes Dad spoke and it was like lightning; sometimes we whispered our secrets and they were like a wind, with nowhere to blow but between the four walls he bought for us -- as he changed time to chores for money so we could be warm, watch TV, and dream of who we might be...

The whore of the Horror Plunge

She shows leg. She shows her leg. This is the divorce. Oh, porter! Oh, porter! This is the divorce stage. The early stage. The first time she is engaged in divorce and socially, most appropriately, the last--oh, I apologize, the final. She is american, like the flag is american, like the colors, they too, like they too are american. They are all american. America, Gus mentions, casually: Porter! Porter!

It was a sitcom, the first run through was a sitcom, a love story. She was pretty and short and....no, again: she was pretty and tall and lean and blonde and he was strong and firm and rational....no, again: he was an uncut statue, a human hero, a roman undug congressman. Oh, the Roman's were, yes, were so romantic.

She is on her pill, again, broke, peppered by the whistle, the church bells, anything spiritual at all. Any state leader, moderator, would be encouraged by the moderate music of fidelity. Ah, there is a heroine. She, yes, yes, the she that is completely compelled to be herself is indeed herself!

She shows leg and she attracts attention. There are only three million women in New York City and most of them are not attracted by other women. I am not competing with the other women, Hank insists but the color of the sun, like the color of the earth, is suggesting, perhaps erotically: we were erotic, we were sexual, we were un-crying men, we were loving ourselves, ourselves were so much to be loved--SHE SHOWED HER LEG.

Exposed: finally, exacted, flaunt! flaunt! She has no longer caught our curiousity. There are three million men in New York City and they are not interested in the woman who shows her leg. However, however, simply exhilirated, angered, exasperated, TORN. The whore of the male's animal plunge. The whore of the male and his animal plunge.

The horror of the plunge. I am just a show of my leg anyway, she wrote and she was not upset, not at all.

Walnuts

The reasons for the seas were lost in long lines coiled and made into the letters A G C T under our skin. "CAT G?" She asked and laughed. "Like a gansta?" But it was only sort of funny. The clouds kept circling the earth, vultures kept to the deserts and eagles were scarcer and scarcer in America. I saw one once, in a small nest, stuffed and waiting for her egg to hatch. "Momma eagle on a Grecian urn, huh?" But it was not funny.

When we were kids she said, "Heaven is like a white line on white paper," and we thought about that for a while before Bob Dylan came on the readio & told us not to think twice. So we kissed, and I walked back home on the empty night roads for the first time in my life. "Click, click," said the traffic lights. Later I would spend many nights on Walnut Street, high and hungover, listening to the lights after a day of school and talking calmly to pedophiles. What was their reason? And what about their victims?

Can you spell evil with four letters?

"L-I-V-E," said Tommy. "I LIVE in a house."

Good job, Tommy. What else can you spell?

"Lots of things!"

Then he would be alright. The ones who worried me were the bad spellers, the kids who didn't know where they lived and couldn't tell you who lived with them anyway. Like Marshall.

"Oh, you're always thinking about Marshall," she said. "Marhsall Marshall Marshall." Then she looked sad. I don't blame her, though. I try to be present, try to stay in the HERE and NOW and not the SOMEWHERE back THEN, or worse, wander off into A LONG TIME AGO...

Can you spell LIVE?

"Nah, I no good at spellin."

What are you good at?

"Rappin."

You want to rap for me?

"Nah."

You sure?

"Mmn, ok." "Freestyle. You write it for me?" Marshall's eyes were very white, and he did not smell very good.

You want me to write down what you say?

"Mmn, yeah. Ready?"

*

MARSHALL's RAP:

All I need in this world is my bitch, my bitch
My glock nine, my fo five
My shotgun, I'll kill you nigga

All I need in this world is my bitch, my bitch
My glock nine, my fo five
My shotgun, I'll kill you nigga

*

"Wait, you wrote that down for him?" She looked worried. I didn't know Marshall was stealing from someone, a grown man who got paid plenty for the rhymes I made him change. When we spelled out the new words togther, Marshall tried his best to sound them out; but he didn't have the same letters in his brain, they weren't hooked up to sound like A is A and G is G. So mostly I did the spelling. Later, you know, later he---

"I know, Adam, I know." And took my hand.

She already knew this story.

*

Sometimes our memories circle round us and we are in the desert; sometimes we circle around them. The egg won't hatch, it's made of plaster, and anyway there is no Momma Eagle, no Grecian Urn, and truth is not the reason for the sea or what one man does to a boy with his body, or through the radio, or in a quiet office 17 floors above a street named for a beautiful tree. "You're nuts about walnuts," she said.

And that, we both agreed, was really funny.

She was Weepy

He is accostomed to drinking, to binging really. "Unequal abilities actually," notes his wife, Lucy, mild, engaging and periodically afraid. Recent nourishments and acts, while not merely alcohol, considerably improved his standing as most likely to be shot in the face while exiting Melvin's Southern Tavern and Restaurant. "He just has a loose tongue," yes, she remarks, unremarkably, his wife, his long standing wife, his companion, his life partner--she is attached, yes it is documented: attached. Lucy, oh Lucy, she was the athletic samaritan, lacrosse practice and then suicide hot-lines, soup kitchens, yes, yes, of course.

He was most likely to be shot in the face after muttering, indeed perhaps exclaiming, some outrageous claim of human evolution, some claim of familial fame. The bushes, the rose bushes, were an excuse, later an error on Lucy's fault. He seemed the gardening type but his disposition would not permit it, no, his daily habit, his routine, his lifestyle would not permit it. They were life partneres, remember and she was likely to console herself in medicines, cabinets, bathrooms. I am so weepy, she would say and indeed, she would think: and it is my birthday!

There are seldom reasons to excuse the nature of a predator. Escalations do not occur. There is no breaking point--it is always breaking. The owner of Melvin's Southern Tavern did not encourage the action of the man. "The engagement, the future engagement, was more like a promise than a dare," he was quoted as saying. Someone overheard him. It was more like a promise.

"What a way for him to exhale," Lucy said later. He was shot in the face coming out of a tavern because of a dare--no it was a promise. He was prone to binges and they were aggressive binges. There is little but personal attacks at the end of binges. "I hate myself," he said before he died. And Lucy was weeping, right there in front of Melvin's Southern Tavern. She was weeping and she felt very weepy.

the just dead

The madness, least of all, even, un-split, unequivocal sexuality. There were, to count, on the various introductions, five, perhaps even six, inappropriate gestures, slang interventions. Cruel to the least of the un-observant. Unquick? Yes, his reply. Unquick? By chance, evening prayers, morning breakfast, state-house reply. Unquick? Yes, his reply—not un-quick? No, sir. Not here, corrected and verbally confirmed. By voice? Again, perhaps. The uneasy, the squirmy, the wobbly protest, meager, feeble, junky—protest! The junky protest, all of them, the addicts, the depth chart five, addicts, unfounded in the undiscovered……Yes….the wraps, by chance, indeed, by chance, find the wraps:

They are buried after they are massacred, slaughtered, murdered—or just dead, correct? Yes, or just dead. Or they are buried, simply buried. Regardless. Yes. But not suicide?

Not suicide?

No, even suicide. It is beginning to assume that the new leadership will conduct a thorough investigation into the nature of suicide, in a very scientific and progressive manner and in which (of course conclusions are not yet obtained nor in any way pretend to be leaked nor coerced in this statement) the full truth of the all apparently assisted suicides will be appropriately assessed. We believe, of course...of course...

The madness, least of all, even, un-split unequivocal sexuality. She was, to name a few, an exceptional woman. In the midst of unnatural confusion, brought on by the surgical error of one senior physician at General Memorial, there was no accurate analysis, no final and conclusive data, on her final—junky! Yes, she was a junky, a split up and torn up junky. And she will remember that, peacefully, but far from suicidal in her intent, far from intending suicide—from wanting suicide.

They are massacred, slaughtered, murdered—no, they are just dead.

Property Values Appear To be Ok

The buildings are still only paper but they are arguing over property value and crime rates. Possible crime rates—potential crime rates. There were fifteen assaults in the neighborhood most like this one last week alone, Mark insists. He is barely out of breath, sweating—and studying, the papers, the new buildings. The new buildings are only on paper. They are just drawings, sketches, for the other side of town. Projections of what the city will pay and what the buildings will pay the city. It is not a neighborhood like that one, Ruth scoffs. That one was full of—

The criminals are plotting underground now, Seth whispers.

—the improperly educated, Ruth corrects herself. She is apologetic for the slur, the inappropriate slur. The mis-use of the language. We shall applaud the construction. But it is only paper. Only now is it paper. Mark is bending, at the knees and he is staring at the buildings on the paper and imagining them climbing, climbing out off the desk and into the ceiling and through the floor above this floor, into the fifty-seventh floor. Yes, right into Mr. Clayton’s office. Between the sculpture of the naked Madonna, the cheap naked Madonna, taste—

I suppose, eventually, I am permitted tastes that neither suggest over-indulgence nor gaudy and class-less inspiration nor, of course, impoverished histories, social justice orientation, Seth concludes. They hired me to act as a kill then, as I was permitted. He discloses, unworried by the flashing lights, the skin, the human female skin. It is carved into the mold of this purely perfected oasis…ah, that was the quote they allowed me to keep, Seth remembers. Of course. Until she called me—

I am permitted one fire arm and one pack of chewing gum, standard chewing gum, store bought, bodega bought, nothing flashy, fancy. Those weren’t criminals plotting. You were a killer, she flashes skin again. No, he says, I was taught to kill, more likely, they had me to act as I would if I were a kill. They have not legalized it, not yet. The buildings were still on paper, for Christ sake, on the bloody paper, they hadn’t finalized the capital initiatives, the oversight, the policing, the detentions, nothing. It was on paper—

We have ten assaults on this block, Mark notes. Those weren’t assaults, Ruth interrupts again, those were purely fabricated misunderstandings. So they were misunderstandings? Yes. Then they are not fabricated. No, they were invented, not real, no actors—a response team was sent to investigate, to hypothesize, to venture an estimate. Where will we build? Here and here—

And then it lit up. The tree through the floor, through the naked Madonna—the tasteless, cliché, naked Madonna in Mr. Clayton’s office. And they had you to act as a kill? The others were weak, unfed. But it was on paper. The buildings were on paper? Of course the buildings were on paper—you think anybody actually ever lived there. So you were a kill to inhabitants that were not there—

They weren’t there, the criminal minds were below, in the cellar, soiled. No, but there were kills, too many kills, ten, fifteen. In buildings that did not exist yet, did not have infrastructure to house, to be, to act as, a community. So who are you killing anyway, really. It was all on a piece of paper.

I think we should build over here, Mark suggests. He points to a place on the corner of the desk. It is safer over there, he says. Jesus Christ, Ruth spits, it’s a goddamn piece of paper in an office on a desk. No, you could assume, Mr. Clayton didn’t like the naked Madonna either.


[s]

no, not any of us is unfed

The dim and realized failure, far from ignored or neglected, resolves itself to complete and entitled success--capitalized, determined. The man, himself, is unnoticeable, uneager, resigned. It was, at last, then, removed and insignificantly hyped, turned into an opera, a posted and reviewed one man suggestion. He is, of course, a single man, harbored by his insecurity, a cove of sorts. The usual back and forth discourse concerning the relationships of objects of animals and indeed (at least lately) of furniture has required a modern approach to lifestyle. He may no longer, so coyly as his presentation permits, act studiously uninterested.

Further insight into the depressive state, as dictated by the imaginative and spiritually homeless man, is useless, vague. She is a woman of character and wealth and promise. A woman of property, of renewed vigor. A fictitious widow. There is but the lingering denial, so aptly cornered in her skirt, in her manner of astute address. Yes, she is to be sought and un-ignored while her counterpart and deceased yet ably mobile partner is loosely morbid, depressed. He is depressed, my dear. The early state, of which he would later mock as overwhelmingly simplified and exaggerated, was morning cocktails and afternoon naps. Later, as justified by the Star, he was neither malingering in his love for puppets nor manipulative in his abuse. Both were straight forward, given, granted, stated and never modified nor justified.

It is never decidedly inclusive to casually suppose the martyr, the woman of property so eagerly consumed by the spiritual indigent. Her romance and her disposition demand necessity in the communal survival, indeed the collective church: the social configuration of this state. Oh, she exclaims, heartily, eagerly, modestly, this is most exclusive. No, no, he was not ever truly unsettled or discomforted. No, not any longer--you see, there are no friends any longer.

we welcome back, the un-back

again, as supposed, as perhaps seen, as again. the progress has finally become un-ceased. there are moments, untitled moments. so, as detailed, as demanded, as the dictation requires: we welcome back the un-back.

Just Make Yourself Look Pretty, Sally

a.

It is an hour walk to the well and there are children and women and old men at the well. The sun is hot and yellow and I have turned dark and callous in the afternoon. The end of the wellborn child, against the sand, struts into a leadership role and plagues himself with nude walks.

Fuck off.

b.

He is red, she says and she is spent and she is a hooker. We are tired of hookers in the backyard. They aren’t using the toilets. That is Garrison. He is the banker and he makes $4.25 an hour because it is no longer 1950. I only have twenties and fifties, Garrison says. The hag needs to make it to the store so she can buy eggs.

Get the fuck out of my store.

c.

There is sound in the other room, there is music there, and people are playing instruments and the instruments are the guitar, the cello, the saxophone, and the drums. They are pretty talented and energized and there is good music.

But I don’t fucking care.

d.

In the morning of the fourth day that I quit trying to have sex with the fat girl that liked to sit at the bar, my hand turned yellow and I began to vomit because I had bad fucking karma. Jesus didn’t help me either and I told him as much.

I bought a piece of shit motorcycle and it broke down on 101.

e.

It is fifty-three miles across the southern part of the state. Troy biked it in four hours because there were a lot of hills. He ate a hamburger and he drank a milkshake and he told the waitress that he didn’t want fucking mayonnaise on his hamburger.

I don’t fucking care what you want, she said.

f.

The end of the year came and it wouldn’t have really mattered what happened in January. The goddamn children were still at the well and I still had to wait in line and it was hot as fuck.

g.

Everyone else, all of them, is just mutes.

[s]

we aren't going to let anybody survive in those tunnels

I gave him a rifle and he took it into the hole in the ground and he started shooting and I think he was shooting with his eyes closed. At first, there was some shrieking, little person shrieking, and then there was a whole bunch of shrieking. Later, he came up all bloody and dirty and his eyes were like little lanterns. It was a good first shooting for the boy and I thought that he had come out a lot older and a lot more mature. It’s about time he learned how to defend himself.

His teacher taught him to multiply four’s the next morning and the next afternoon he learned a new word and the word was stoic: The four men shot little pigeons in the garage and then the four men went into the house and ate and then the four men came out of the house and went into the army and the whole time the men were silent and stoic.

That’s an awfully long sentence but it sure is good. The only problem is that it might be too good and soon Mrs. Teacher is going to be calling the trailer and spouting some bullshit about college and after school tutoring and hell, that is just a little bit too much attention. Attention will probably get you shot.

I have tried to tell the little bugger that a bunch of times and I think he is just starting to get it.

The plan at the beginning of the school year was to be as normal as possible—to sit and not make any noise to not bother anybody and to not get any attention. Any attention is bad, I told him when he was seven. He had been caught shoplifting from Dave’s Fish ‘N Tackle and they had arrested him right away and taken him in the back and beaten him with a blackjack.

He deserved it and I told him as much.

Besides, there is something incredibly wrong with trying to make the teacher smile when she looks at you or trying to make the teacher look at you at all. I used to try to do that but that was before I knew anything about my nature and about my purpose. About ten years ago, though, my guidance counselor set me all straight. He said that I would probably lead an immobile and unvarying existence and that it would probably afford me the ability to avoid all inconvenient responsibility. I thought he gave me a pretty good and sound evaluation. And that was when I started the no-attention getting philosophy.

Since then, things have worked pretty well, for the most part.

The friggin little boy, though, the one that lives next door keeps getting himself in a bunch of fits and struggles and the police keep coming into the neighborhood and asking all sorts of questions about our fences and our storage areas. One of these days I am going to have to send my boy over there and straighten that little boy out.

Beyond all the no-attention teachings, I keep my boy up to speed on all the important happenings in the neighborhood and in our country. I tell my boy the truth about the world. I don’t hide from the boy and that is why I gave him the shotgun, or maybe it was just a rifle. Those people in those tunnels, they come from another country, I tell him. Those people come here because their own country is bad and has no jobs or food or good places to live. Those people are an inconvenience and a nuisance in our country, and probably in their own no-good country too. So they come into this country, all sneaky, and they try to plant themselves here like they always been here. But it's always been just us here and nobody else. All that talk got him pretty excited and he had to get into that tunnel. And I let him go.

And the first time he came up from the tunnels I noticed that he had sort of accidentally pissed himself and he was a little bit frightened. I figured the next time he went down in that tunnel he should take a shotgun because then the little escapees won’t be bleeding and rolling in the mud after they are shot. Hell, they’ll probably be dead right away.

Besides, the boy is done real good this year at keeping out of sight. I haven't gotten any phone calls from Mrs. Teacher or any of those other whores. In the end, all the good behavior makes for a mighty good summer and we indeed celebrate.

On the fourth of July, my wife gives me a gas grill and we cook burgers and celebrate the great land that has always been America and we celebrate about how good we are at keeping those stupid bastards out of our country. Later that night some man in an American flag t-shirt says that there are some silly men on the news who think they can blow us up. I’ll blow them right back up after, my son says and my wife is happy to know that I have raised the boy right in the ways of protection.

[s]

His heart is going to stop and he is soon to be dead

A.

The cardiology department is on the fifth floor, the nurse says. The nurse is tall and thin and the nurse looks like an athlete. I bet she is a good athlete, George thinks and he walks to the elevator and presses the button that says five.

There is a man on the floor of the hospital lobby. The man has a hole in his chest and he is bleeding and he is asking the nurse for a glass of water. There are missiles outside and the missiles are going off on the street and there are loud explosions and some of the children, the small children, are crying. George stands in the elevator and watches the numbers light up: one, two, three, four, five.

George gets off the elevator.

B.

There are signs for the cardiology department on the fifth floor. The signs point to the left. The sings are made of cardboard. George follows the signs. There are a considerable amount of people on this floor, George thinks.

Most of the people are old. They have hearts that have lasted a very long time.

My grandmother reads Life Magazine because it makes her happy, George says. Life is a magazine about other people. There are pictures of other people in Life Magazine. At least she has a heart that is very strong and has been able to last a long time, Mary says.

Oh yeah, George thinks, Mary did come with me.

George doesn’t smile at first but a bag of a woman with a blue wool hat smiles and waves. Maybe this visit will be quite humorous, George thinks. Just this one visit. The woman is sitting on a bench and she has a really large smile. She waves again. She is not quite well. Yes, George decides, this visit will be quite humorous. George is not decidedly upset anymore.

You know Mary, George says, I wouldn’t generally smile. I would be agitated and nervous and I would be fidgeting—you know how I fidget when these things come around. I wouldn’t be in a good mood, I wouldn’t be in a good mood at all. But I suppose there isn’t really that much that you can do when you know that your heart is going to go out like a cheap balloon.

It will just go—pop.

C.

The doctor is whispering and George sits in his hospital robe and he stares at a machine that has many buttons and dials. An ultra sound image of George’s heart is frozen on the screen. George looks at his heart on the screen. His humor has lessened over the past few minutes but he is not quite morose.

There are holes in his heart, the doctor says to Mary. It is going to be quite difficult for him to breathe and he is going to take many short breaths all day long and he might go black in the eyes sometimes.

He is going to faint?

Sure, I imagine that he will. He will likely collapse a couple of times. But those are just the strokes. And the strokes are really just getting the clots out. The doctor is a good doctor and he drives a Mercedes and he has two daughters. He is from the mainland, from a small village on the mainland. He eats brown rice and he works on the exercise machines because it is good for his heart.

Mary is sweating and she is noticeably nervous. She wore her white blouse and her straight black pants today. She wanted to act professional and her professional clothes usually make her act proper and, indeed, professional. She does the same thing when she is ill. She wears clothes that are professional and she feels less ill.

It is almost as though you aren’t supposed to feel ill in certain clothes.

But now she is terribly upset and her make-up begins to make her look like she is a clown and she is crying because it is really rather sad that George is not doing all that well. Actually, it doesn’t fucking matter that she is wearing her black pants.

The doctor says hello to George. George says hello to the doctor.

The doctor plays with the machine and the doctor talks to another doctor. The other doctor is a woman doctor and both doctors nod their heads and point at the screen and they seem to be talking about something very serious, very grave. He didn’t take care of that at all, the woman doctor says. No he didn’t, the doctor says and he agrees.

I didn’t, George says and sighs. I think I saw them laugh a bit though, George thinks. But maybe it was just a doctor laugh. Maybe it was a bit of a he’s dead so let’s move on laugh. But that is clearly not true because George is still sitting in the hospital and George is definitely not dead.

D.

To tell the truth, though, there aren’t really any missiles outside and there aren’t really any explosions either. But the cardiology department is on the fifth floor.


[s]

The extremists in the north want to murder our babies

There is a howl and the women with babies are in a well and the babies are screaming and the women are asking for help. This, perhaps, is the result of one idea that arose at the end of the last century. There were others, of course, but the other ideas were eventually and eagerly disregarded.

After a considerable amount of debate, it was decided that the one idea would be granted permission to secede all other designs presented by foundations, institutions, and faith based organizations. You see, the men had horses then, and the horses were fast. Quite simply, the men rode their horses throughout the countryside and the countryside was rolling hills and stone farmhouses and small brooks and nested fields.

There was, in fact, no faster way to spread the idea (nor implement the idea) since there weren’t any things in the sky any longer and there weren't any things flying around the earth any longer. And I must admit there was quite some promise at the beginning. The execution was remarkably swift. At the end of the first week, the picnic areas were filled with eaters and the eaters were hungry. The volunteers were well dressed and easily disposed to find comfort in their neighbor and in the safety and honor in the idea. But, after a while, a few disputes broke out and it did not seem that the idea was as good as it was initially perceived.

So we went back to the table on the south side of Bell Island and we began to draw up another idea. The first idea had been to put all the women with babies in the bottom of a well. The women with babies were vulnerable and since the dawning of the new war manuals—they were enemy targets. We were concerned, rightly so, that a successful massacre of these helpless and hopeless women and children would leave us embarrassingly crippled and descendent-less.

That was out-right foolish on our part.

Really, it is quite impossible to become descendent-less. We all agreed on that after some time and the women with the babies were brought out of the wells and we shook hands with the women and the babies were covered in dust and ash and some of the babies died when they came back up to the surface because it was a difficult adjustment. There are some unfortunate casualties in the implications of ideas and, as thoroughly and professionally as the idea was put in place and administered there were still some people that were not able to follow directions or were unfortunate victims of circumstance.

At the time of the drawing of the second idea, there were seventeen members in our cabinet and each member of the cabinet was responsible for writing one thoroughly plausible and appropriate idea. The best idea from the group of seventeen was to be administered. In retrospect, our second chosen idea was probably not the best either. It is remarkably amazing that a group of well-educated and wealthy men could choose the wrong idea. However, there is great merit in the grace and dignity with which we led our nation against the extremists and hardliners of the north.


[s]

The man with the gun is famous and he is a foster father

a.

The bank robbing men shoot the workingmen and the bank robbing men steal the jewelry and the money.

b.

Sheila is six and she cannot read the headline. Sheila makes cow noises at the dinner table and Sheila gets slapped in the face and Sheila starts to bleed and now Sheila is a foster child. She is case number 114310-A.

c.

The lobby has fluorescent lights. I had my money in that fucking bank, Dale says. You should be a car racer then you would make more money, the teller says. Fuck you, Dale says. It is seventy-seven degrees at nine a.m.

I hope it doesn’t rain, Stewart says to Martha. Stewart and Martha are newly-weds. It would really be too bad if it rained on their honeymoon.

d.

The headline says that the mobsters are in the city again, Martin says to Sheila. Last time the mobsters were in the city I couldn’t go to the town pool, Sheila says. That is because there were dead people floating in the pool and I didn’t think that it would be appropriate for you to swim with dead people now finish your toast.

e.

Martin works at the bank. Banks have money. Martin wears a hairpiece. Martin hides coconut rum in his office drawer. It is like the Caribbean without the sunburn, he says. You poor sucker, Michelle says. Michelle has a snicker that sounds like a pig and Michelle is fat and Michelle is also a sucker.

f.

The mobsters are in the bank when Martin arrives at the bank and the mobsters are stealing money from the bank. Who is in charge, Martin asks the mobsters and the mobsters point at a man that has a black hat.

g.

The city is more beautiful at night but there are more people shot when the city is beautiful and Sheila is in the 22nd precinct waiting for her foster father. The mobsters only want money from the safe, Jack says to Martin. Jack is the regional manager. Jack has sex twice a week: on Sunday afternoons and Friday mornings. Jack’s wife is a vegetarian and she wears leather pants.

Jack’s wife wants to be in a rock and roll band because then people will point and say: I want to be Jack’s wife. That would be odd, Jack thinks. Jack’s wife is usually asleep on Friday mornings. Jack has sex once a week. Jack makes elephant noises.

h.

Poor sucker.

i.

I used to drink banana rum but that gave me bad indigestion, Martin says. Do you want twenties or fifties, Martin asks the man in the black hat. Jack tried out for the circus when he was seventeen but the circus man said that he looked like a lamb.

j.

Go piss yourself.

[s]

Oklahoma is an Egg

a.

It is Sunday. Stan cracks eggs in the sink. I have cracked the world, Stan mumbles. Stan eats eggs for breakfast and wonders if he would have liked being born Swiss.

b.

Stacey has blood on her face and she is crying and she is in the middle of the street. There are cars in the street and the cars are stopped. Why are all the cars stopped, Mike asks. Mike drives a Saab and he has high cheek bones. Why did you buy a Swedish car, Dan asks.

c.

You should tell the girl to get out of the street, Mike says to Dan. Get out of the street, Dan says to the girl. The girl does not move but the girl is still bleeding and she looks like she is from a movie that is about killing. Dan is a bus driver. He weighs two hundred and fifteen pounds. The children are in the bus and the children are making noise.

You should tell the children to be quiet, Mike says to Dan. Be quiet children, Dan says to the children. The girl is trying to kill herself, Jill says. I don't think the children can be quiet on Sunday, Dan says.

d.

The race is on Sunday. The race is uphill. There are many runners in the race.

e.

The Sunday paper says that the children in Oklahoma are hungry and that the children in Oklahoma do not have that many clothes and that the children in Oklahoma are really poor. Have you heard about the children in Oklahoma, Dan asks Mike. Why is the girl still in the street, Mike asks. She is still trying to kill herself, Dan says. I am going to miss the start of the race, Mike says. Did you know that the race is uphill this year, Jill asks.

f.

The race starts because the gun is fired. The men and women run uphill and the people on the grass clap their hands and some of the people give the runners water. The runners look serious and they run up the hill very fast and they look like they are meant to run uphill and it is quite a race. This is quite a race, Stan says.

g.

Now the girl has scissors in her hand and she is cutting herself and now her arms are bleeding and she is not crying anymore but she is very pale and she looks thin in the eyes. At least she has stopped crying, Mike says. The children in the bus are not making noise anymore. The children are watching the girl in the street. She is like a monster, Sally says. Sally is twelve.

h.

It is quite frightening, Dan says, to take the whole world and turn it on its end. But it is a good way to get to heaven and it is a good way to know how strong you are. Mike nods and Mike takes off his racing number and he walks back to his car. She will be dead soon, Mike says to Tracy. We missed the race, Tracy says.

Occasionally, it is the oddest thing to see a girl cut her arms open with scissors in the middle of the street in the middle of the city. She didn’t even cry all that much, Mike mutters, not even when she started taking off her skin.

i.

I think I am going to buy Oklahoma, Stan says to Rita. Oklahoma is very poor and the people in Oklahoma do not have that many clothes. Do they have eggs in Oklahoma, Rita asks. I don’t know, Stan says.

j.

In the afternoon, Buck wins the race and he stands on top of the hill and he looks at the mountains and he thinks that the mountains are very beautiful like they too were made from an egg.


[s]

Hank runs into the Law and gets sidelined

I.

Hank strangles Lilly. Lilly is the name of a flower. There are flowers in the garden and the flowers are red and orange. It is the doctor’s voice and it is in my head and Hank is screaming because he has red hands. It seems that Lilly was bleeding in her mouth and then she was bleeding on the rug and Hank tried to make her stop. But she was dead because she had been strangled. It is the doctor’s voice again.

There is science in the auditorium every Thursday. The first graders are making little volcanoes and the second graders are making biospheres. Nothing can get in and out of the biosphere. A little while ago, some scientists made a gigantic biosphere. The biosphere was the size of a mall. Some of the scientists lived in it for a while. The scientists had white robes and they walked around the biosphere with clipboards. Each day, the scientists wrote down numbers and the numbers were quite clever at dividing everything into cause and effect. It is consequential thinking, the doctor says. It is his voice again and it is in my head.

Or maybe the numbers on the clipboards said what the things were. I don’t remember. Biospheres are complicated. The radio says that soon there will be biospheres in space because space is a vacuum. That is probably a practical conclusion to the story of the dividers. They sure have been at work for an awfully long time. It would be humorous to see them advance and evolve to the point that they were living in space.

They really are dividers. It isn’t so much a legend anymore. That is the doctor again. He comes in like that, sometimes. I think he is at the door and then he is inside. He wears glasses and his hands are cold and my heart beats faster when he is in my house but I am not excited and I am certainly not sexually aroused.

Not scientifically.

Lilly asks Hank to strangle her. She asked you, the doctor asks. Yes, she asked me. There were strange wires in her head and the wires were telling her to sit and then to stand and then to sleep and she said the wires were connected to her chest. I had to stop the wires, I say in the end. So you strangled her. There is one last step and it is not really like the rest of the steps, the doctor says and he is smug and he is writing many notes that detail me. You took the last step and you killed her. Now the doctor is cleaning his glasses.

Lilly is bleeding in her mouth and the television is on and the man on the television is saying that a bomb went off in a shopping mall in the capital. A lot of people on the television are in pain and the people have faces that look like they are really scared. I think that the people on the television think that their lives are really important. Maybe their lives are really important. It doesn't really matter, though, their lives are almost over. The television also shows pictures of blown up people and some of the people have metal lodged into their chests and some of the people don’t look that unhappy--even though they are dead. Some of the people look like the last step hadn’t been that bad. Maybe the last step didn't really have anything to do with them at all. Or science.

Hank is in jail because the men and women in the courtroom say that he is guilty and that he should live in jail. Hank lives with Matt. Matt likes to steal cars and Matt likes to burn cars. Sometimes, Matt shoots guns at people. You are going to be in here for a long time, Hank says. I know, Matt says. Shut up, the prison guard says. It is after eleven. They have only made the rules, Hank says.

The prison is not so unhappy, at least for a moment.

II.

The fabled and provocative concern that the rules are made by the bystanders circuitously and perhaps unfavorably finds the ears of the Minister. He was ruthless in his first term and he was congratulated by moderate and humble society for his excellence in preservation. The pinnacle of government had never witnessed a command as thorough, strict and meticulous. It was, therefore, decidedly unfortunate that he was to witness such a complaint early in his second term. In truth, there were several occasions that he remembered quite well. He remembered hunting duck, walking along the shoreline and throwing stones, and eating ice cream at a parlor on Baker St. These were memories and were splendid additions to his life. How could these truly be spectator events.

It is surprising therefore, his wife later recalled, that he hastily shot himself after parading naked through French Hills, a quaint and wealthy neighborhood.

[s]

Convert

I.

i.

She is gathered on her end and she is stained and in a ditch. There is a darkness in the unshadowed mind of the unsettled tyrants. She is unmarried and she is fair. The turns of the morning’s events stir and become the attention of the underburdened aristocracy. She is unmarried and fair.

ii

Yes, she is unmarried.

iii

The rest of the saturated men are not equaled nor proselytized as quickly. You are a king she says and she is unsurprised by his surprise. The north star, he says. He was converted early and he was married early. She is an ape.

iv

On the often unbeaten chance that she might allow him to suicide, there are the directions in the drawer and the directions say: Stop.

She is a unmarried, sir. Her hands have been cut off and are on the floor of the main hall of the castle. We live in a fucking castle, he says. And now she has no hands to add to her duality.

The men that are in the hall applaud and smile. She has been loved prior to the arrangement between two sophisticated and sure countries. We are afraid, President Honreau says.

II.

i.

The man twists and is morality. It is only his individual hope and understanding that permits him to succeed in establishing the black and white society. It is a state that is torn and split between a moral dirt and an untamed criminal seed.

Enough, he says and he is faintly crippled but secure. He thinks, sometimes, about his own balance.

There were not these types before, counsel says. These are the fingered hands of an unskinned settler. This is the thanks. The day is not un-wet.

The world again has come to war against them. It is all that is understood. This, however, is not unlike any reality the world has not known—could not ever know. Better yet, it is the only world that could be possible.

She doesn’t have any fingers. She doesn’t have any hands. And she is breaking. It is, therefore, infinitely mysterious, she says. It is complex and rude and holy and unholy. It is something and one thing to its finite inhabitants.

And we do, after all, die. I have not been passing things along as well as others, he supposes.

ii.

This is it, perhaps, to us. To the world, there is always the next time. Turn into the war again and turn and cut her hands off again. We, or something else, is here. He is an advisor to the prince and he muses with himself in the early mornings. Each day like the one before it—except to one who knows that there are only so many days or there are not. We clever dividers.

iii.

These are now times to suicide or to un-adorn and to drive to know the skin and heart of man and woman. Or lush and lurk and play. She is smiling and he is smiling and she has no hands because they were cut off.

Prophet?
Prophet?
Prophet?

There are not those types here. Sit and settle. It is time to live the second half. Here I may sit.

[s]

It is a National Holiday

Part Ones

He is a fish and he is trying to swim in the street and there is water in the street. He is a fish and he is captured and he is dried out. He walks like he doesn’t have that many bones in his legs, Betty says.

Part Twos

Champagne costs $11.95 at the corner store. The hospital car is white and red and the hospital car has a loud siren and the siren is on.

My mother gives me $15 and I go to the store and I tell Betty that I want two dozen eggs and three loafs of bread because my mother is going to make French toast. My younger brother, Sammy, has throat cancer and the doctor says he is going to die. Does he like French toast, Dr. Holland asks my mother. He loves French toast, my mother says. We are out of eggs, Betty says.

The woman in the street is a hooker and she has sex with men and some of the men have cars and some of the men wear suits and some of the men look like they work in offices downtown. They have names like Bob and Dave and Mike and Sean. Bob and Dave and Mike and Sean give the woman $25 and she makes them feel really good. I have $25 but I stay in my room and stare at the wall. I have a picture of Madonna on my wall.

The nurse is thin and pale and her veins stick out of her arm and she sticks needles into Sammy. You are going to die, the nurse says but she doesn’t look at Sammy. You have bad skin, Dr. Holland says to Sammy. A little while ago, Sammy was a really good basketball player. Now, he sits in bed and vomits and looks really sick like he is death.

Part Threes

Sammy is playing basketball and then Sammy is turning white and then Sammy collapses on the basketball court and he is taken to the school nurse and his nose is bleeding. He has cancer, the school nurse says. Sammy is ten and he is tall. Soon, he is white like people shouldn't be white and he loses all his skin and he loses all his hair and he looks like a monster.

Oh my, the nurse says.

The red and white truck comes to the school and the truck takes Sammy to the hospital and the nurse at the hospital sticks needles into his arm. Sammy has round eyes and he is sweating and he is looking very bad. The nurse was correct, the doctor says later, you are going to die.

Everyone comes to the funeral and Sammy looks very white when he is dead. The mother cries and says Sammy was soon to be eleven. She is a silly woman. A girl in a blue and white dress plays the guitar and sings a folk song. It isn’t really funny that the boy is dead but it is pretty funny that the girl is playing guitar and singing a folk song.

Part Fours

It is odd that I am terrified of people, the doctor says. He is such a horrid thing, the nurse says. Betty raises the price of champagne to $14.95. The man who is a fish has skin that peels off and sticks to the street.

[s]

a fade

a.

The mother is in surgery and the doctor cuts open her chest and the mother is bleeding on the table.

b.

He is in the bathtub and it is Sunday afternoon. He is untying his skin and his blood is hot and it is warm outside but it is not warm inside. The room is white and the walls are white and the sink is white but it all looks yellow because the light is yellow.

c.

You had webs in your feet when you were born, the mother says but she is whispering and the doctor is touching her heart and she has more blood on the hospital floor. The sunrise, outside, is like a monster and it is red like an explosion and a car on the highway drives into the grass.

d.

It is a line that he has heard. It is a line about dawn and darkness and a finger that comes in and has no hand. He shakes it off and the water in the tub is not as warm anymore and he thinks that he has not been dreaming that softly. The previous summer was like hell, he thinks.

e.

The doctor has a yellow car that is yellow like it would be if the light were yellow and the room were white. Like my bathroom, he says. Like it would be if I died in this bathroom, he says. The doctor nods and shakes his shoulders like he just got sensitive in the neck.

f.

The mother is from a working class family and her kids are all grown up and have jobs.

g.

Sew her back up. There is still time, in the later part of the evening, for a circle. The children hold hands and sing a song.

h.

There isn’t that much room for her in the waiting room. She stands and holds her bathrobe close to her body because she is still bleeding and she is bleeding on the floor and her chest is not closed that well. There is not really an illusion that is all un-real. It just seems that the struggling are suicidally lit.

i.

He gets out of the tub and he decides, rather quickly and harshly, that there is not time for the hot blood. He dries himself and then it is difficult to see him because most of the things around him begin to fade because he puts dirt on top of them.

j.

The mother is an excited soil and it is a long exodus to winter.


[s]

American

I.

She is decided to suicide. The slow ride in the car from the wake was enough to tell her that she shouldn’t have to see anymore. She has small cuts on her feet and she is a small girl and she has lost most of her color and now she looks white.

The water breaks and the baby is born and the baby has dark hair and dark eyes and the doctor is from India or Pakistan or Afghanistan. Why is my baby dark, Mrs. Hanley asks. You fucking Arab, Mr. King says.

II.

The dance is for teenagers and the teenagers are white and the teenagers dance like they are having sex. The DJ plays rap music and Mrs. Hanley touches Mr. King.

Mike is on the junior varsity tennis team and Mike has sex with Sally in a parked Ford Escort and Sally gets pregnant and Sally is dark. You fucking whore, Mike says.

III.

There are little animals with horns and the animals are in the street. There are white people being murdered and there are white people sticking needles into small babies and there are white people urinating and defecating in the churches and it is raining.

We don’t want anymore of that fucking music in our town, Principle Harris says.

IV.

Why do you live in the basement, Hollis asks Michelle. The basement is flooded and there are animals with yellow eyes in the basement and the animals make squeaking sounds and Hollis is scared. My sister is home soon and then it won’t be as scary, Michelle says.

V.

I had sex when I was fifteen and the baby was born dark, Mrs. Stevens says and she makes little crying noises in the pantry because she can’t sleep. You have bruises on your ribs, Dr. Jacobs says.

Sally has no clothes on and she is in the park and soon her stomach will become round and she starts to cry and it is dark and the white people with needles are banging trash can lids and they are close.

VI.

There is a baby in the street and the baby is dark. Why is the baby in the street, Hollis asks Michelle.

She suicides and later he learns how to Waltz and the chaperones at the dance wear perfume and drink seltzer.

[s]

141

I.

a.

He is thin and he is pale and he looks like he is not eating and he looks like he is not in the sun too often.

b.

It is spring and the trees are green and there are little flowers on the ground and the flowers are red and blue and some of them are orange.

c.

He coughs and sits inside and it is dark inside.

d.

He is going to die because he is sick and his medicine does not make him well, Tracy says. It is early and there is light in the room from the one window. The sun in the desert is yellow and soon the room is yellow and soon the room is warm. It will be too warm in here for him, Margaret says.

e.

He likes to sit in the dark room, Tracy says.

f.

Margaret makes quiet noises with her mouth when she is nervous.

II.

a.

He is screaming in the morning and the nurse is sticking needles into his arms and his arms are bleeding and there is blood on the floor and there is blood on the bed and the nurse has a white shirt on and the nurse has white pants on.

b.

He fell on the floor, Tracy says.

c.

Margaret has sex with him in a dark room that is in the basement of a house that is on Cleary St. Margaret wears a blue and white mask and in the early morning her body is tan and smooth.

d.

He is awake and he is screaming.

e.

The sheets are red and he has been bleeding again and his body is hairless and he is white and parts of him are blue.

f.

The nurse has white gloves and sometimes she is crying.

[s]

The bridge from Freemont to Columbus

I.

The wind comes from the north and the wind comes down the river and the wind is cold. The men and women on the ferry hug one another and they make faces that make them look happy but the men and women are really cold.

II.

a.

The Orange Jackets won 15-3 last night, Dave says to Martin. Dave sits next to Martin on the ferry. Dave reads about bridges. I am going to build a bridge from Freemont to Columbus, Dave says. I don’t even have a car, Martin says. You won’t need a car, Dave says. You can walk across the bridge.

b.

It is hot in July and Martin marries Stacey in the church that is on the cliff and looks at Freemont. Jefferson takes photographs and charges $1.25 for every photograph. I took fifty-five photographs, Jefferson says. I bought this tuxedo for $29.65, Martin says.

c.

Martin works at Columbus Bank. Martin is a bank teller. Columbus Bank is in Columbus. Freemont and Columbus are on a river but they are not on the same side of the river and Freemont is where people live who don’t live in Columbus. Most of the jobs are in Columbus, Stacey says and she is washing dishes.

d.

Dave is going to build a bridge to Columbus, Martin says. Martin married Stacey because she makes little kitten noises when she empties the dishwasher.

e.

Dave is in the Columbus Bank and he talks to Mr. Jacobson. Mr. Jacobson works on the top floor and he has an office that has two big windows and two big leather couches. I have a secretary that I like to have sex with, Mr. Jacobson says. I eat dinner at Gary’s Sushi because it is only $4.95 for a very big meal, Dave says.

f.

At 7:45 Martin walks to the ferry building and walks onto the ferry. On the ferry, Martin reads the Freemont Daily paper. The Freemont Daily paper writes about Columbus. The paper says: Man to build Bridge to Columbus.

g.

Two women row a boat across the Columbus River and they row in record time and the time is under ten minutes. Wow, Martin thinks. What can I do in less than ten minutes, Martin wonders but he can’t think of anything and he eventually decides that ten minutes is not that much time.

Dave builds a bridge from Freemont to Columbus. The bridge has tall towers and the bridge is silver and the bridge looks like it connects two cities that have pretty things inside them.

h.

The Columbus Bank was just bought by the Freemont Bank, Jack says. You can buy banks, Lou asks. You can't have a Freemont Bank in Columbus, Stan says. They are going to carry the bank across the bridge, Jack says.

i.

Martin sits behind the glass at the Freemont Bank. Martin asks Mrs. Morrison if she wants tens and fives or just fives. Just fives, Mrs. Morrison says.

III.

In the winter the bridge freezes and turns to ice and the cars on the bridge get stuck.

[s]

Joy of Life is 30-1

1.

Martin lives in the hospital because he is sick and he can’t touch people or he will die. At nighttime, Martin vomits in his sleep and he smells like urine. Martin lives in a plastic room and his mother waves at him from a window and then she goes home and cries and has sex with Max.

Oh Beatrice, Max says. I left the clothes in the dryer, Beatrice says and she walks through the house naked and she looks like she is thin and pale like she is a ghost.

2.

Beatrice and Morgan are married and they have sex on Thursday mornings and Tuesday afternoons. Morgan works at the golf club and Max is twelve years old. Morgan and Beatrice eat at Julio’s on Sundays.

I like Julio’s, Beatrice thinks. In high school, Beatrice won a contest that said she was the brightest future for San Carlo. She was in a parade and the parents of the other children gave her a big party and she bought a really nice dress and she drank lots of drinks and Morgan asked her if she wanted to make sex in the Laundromat on Clark and 22nd and she said yes.

3.

Max asks Beatrice if she loves him. Do you love me, Beatrice? Of course Max, Beatrice says. Beatrice has a tattoo on her back that is a picture of a bicycle. Morgan rides his bicycle home and he sees Max and Beatrice having oral sex in the swimming pool and it is July.

4.

There are fifteen dogs in race thirteen. Your wife has sex with boys, Danny says. Joy of Life is 30-1. He won’t win and they will probably shoot him in the head after the race. They can’t shoot Joy of Life, Morgan says and Morgan puts $50 on Joy of Life and Joy of Life doesn’t place and a man who is fat walks onto the track and shoots Joy of Life in the face and there are some people at the track who clap their hands and Morgan tears up his ticket.

I don’t even like oral sex, Danny says. I don’t either, Morgan says.

5.

Lily is ten and she plays the violin and sometimes she crosses the street without looking and sometimes she hides in an old rubber stamp warehouse on Murray Hill. There are sharp nails and loose boards in the cabin but Lily says that she can hear Jesus tell Mary that he wants to have sex with her when it is quiet and she is in the warehouse.

6.

Danny and Morgan ask the woman at the track to do favors for them in the parking lot and some of the women are shy and some of the women smile and have sweaty palms and Danny and Morgan take them into the trees on the other side of the park.

Do you like Bon Jovi, Danny asks Shelly. I love Bon Jovi, Shelly says. She has red hair and she makes little twirls with her hips and she makes babies really fast. You got pregnant really fast, Danny says. I know, Shelly says. Do you like the name Lily, Shelly asks.

7.

Fuck.

8.

Jesus never said that to Mary, Father Thompson says to Lily. Father Thompson has a moustache but he isn’t supposed to wear a moustache because then he looks like he is a baseball player.

9.

Life in the fast lane, Beatrice says and smokes a cigarette.


[s]

I killed a little girl who was having trouble breathing

I.

Sally weighs one pound when she is born and she does not breathe that well and she turns into red and purple colors and she does not look that white and her mother buries her in the ground and the ground is sand and gravel and there are weeds in the ground. She will die, Aunt Susan says but Aunt Susan does not shave under her arms and Aunt Susan says bad words and she does not always wear a bra.

II.

a.

You look like a whore, Douglas Garrison says.

b.

I buried her in the ground and I put flowers on the ground and I said a prayer and then I went to church and I talked to the minister and I said three or four our fathers and then I went to the market and I had sex with some of the men who do not speak English and who work in the back of the store next to where the freezer is and I did not have one orgasm and I didn’t really like it all that much.

c.

You had sex in the freezer, Douglas Garrison says.

d.

Court is never as crowded and as dramatic as it seems to be when it is on the television. Once, I watched an entire episode of Legal Mind on the television and the lawyer told the jury that this girl wasn’t guilty and the jury still said that she was guilty and the show was really good. But then this other time the show Legal Mind had a man from a school in the northeast who said that the legal system needed to change and I said that the girl was still guilty.

e.

One of the men was washing lettuce and he asked me if I wanted to see where the lettuce was in the truck and I said I wanted to see where the lettuce was in the truck and I went back with him and he and the other guys said they wanted to play a game and I said ok but I didn’t have any orgasms and I didn’t really like it that much but it was ok and the guys were kind of nice and then I came home.

f.

I thought the guy who was my lawyer should have picked the woman with the flowered skirt and the short sleeve top because she looked like my sister and I was sure that she would be nice and know that I only buried the girl in the backyard because she was purple and red and I thought that she was going to die really soon and I wanted to be there when she died and I wanted to say some things to her right when she died so that she would go to heaven.

g.

You are going to hell, the judge says. And it is going to be hot and there are going to be animals that have sharp spears and you are going to burn for a very long time.

h.

Oh no.

III.

Aunt Susan has sex with Douglas Garrison in the back of the church and they do not go to hell because they did not bury a little girl who was purple and red and did not look that white.


[s]

Christmas in Town

1.

The tree is green and the tree is a triangle and the children hold hands and one of them is sick.

2.

Amen and Hallelujah and Amen, the minister says. Holy-holy, the churchwoman says. That boy will die, Dan Dougherty says. Dan Dougherty likes to sit in the front row of the church. I belong in the front row on Christmas Eve, Dan Dougherty says.

3.

The tree has little white lights and the little white lights flicker. Do they still sell sno-cones at Laurel’s, Diana asks. Who does that boy belong to, Dan Dougherty asks.

4.

The tree has oddly made ornaments and the oddly made ornaments are from shops in the streets and alleys of towns like Greenwich and Carmel and Aspen and La Jolla. The boy has turns in his stomach and his mangled arms make him look like a snake.

5.

The boy is on the floor and the boy is covered in blood and urine and he looks really quite sick and ill.

6.

The boy has turned into a snake, the minister says. We should get the women out of the church, Dan Dougherty says. I will get the holy water, the minister says. The hell with holy water, Dan Dougherty says.

7.

On December 22, 1981, Jill asks Santa Claus for a blue sweater with a green and red heart in the middle. That is a silly request, Michael says. Michael is Jill’s brother and he is twelve and he kisses Sally behind the auditorium during the school dance. You taste like peppermint, Sally says. No I don’t, Michael says.

8.

Jill opens her presents. Santa gives her a blue sweater with a green and red heart in the middle. I am so happy, Jill says to her parents.

9.

Dan Dougherty drinks coffee at Laurel’s. You don’t sell sno-cones anymore, Diana asks. No, the clerk says. Maybe we should have taken him to the hospital, the minister says. He was sick, Dan Dougherty says.

10.

On Christmas day the town looks at the green tree with the white lights. Michael was the sick boy, Diana says. That is my brother, Jill says. Michael is on the ground and he is not moving. We had to shoot him in the face because he was quite sick, the minister says.

11.

Now we can’t have an open casket memorial, Jill’s mother says.

[s]

August

a.

It is five forty-five in the morning. The sun has not come out and it is cold and somebody in the hallway is shouting. The nurse is white and she is tall and she eats chocolate cake in the dining hall and she is fat.

c.

The doctor has a house on a golf course and he has a car that goes really fast. Is that good, Mary asks. Mary is the ambulance driver and she puts her body into little triangles in the morning. It is good, the doctor says. Where is the golf course, Mary asks. Someone in the hallway is shouting.

d.

The doctor is on a diet. The doctor has sex with the nurse at six fifteen. She moves her body back and forth and she makes little noises like she is a rodent. The doctor counts to seven. I am in better shape, the doctor says. The nurse looks pasty and her body is sweating and it sticks to the operating table. You look like you don’t see the sun all that much, the doctor says.

e.

Mary drives the ambulance very fast and sometimes she does not stop at the red lights even when her flashing lights are not on. They won’t like hitting an ambulance, Mary says. Who won’t, Harold asks. Harold and Mary started having sex when Mary was seventeen. Now, Mary is twenty seven. The other drivers, Mary says. Somebody is screaming in the hallway, Harold says. The doctor counts: eight, nine, ten. Where is the nurse, Mary says.

f.

There is somebody shouting in the hallway, Mrs. Galloway says. She is polite and patient but the screaming is really pretty terrible and she has become a little bit worried. Mrs. Galloway was born in a small communist village outside Moscow and she doesn’t think that some people should be left to scream in the hospital.

The hospital was built in 1901, the clerk says. I was born in 1924, Mrs. Galloway says. Then I would have a seat, the clerk says. The clock on the wall in the waiting room makes loud ticking noises and it sounds like it is a bomb.

g.

The nurse is tall and white and she used to play sports for her high school in Atlanta. She could make her body into squares and circles. The other girls couldn’t do that. Her father said she had an ugly nose. Her math teacher slept with her after homecoming. You are going to get fat, her father said.

h.

He doesn’t have insurance, the nurse says. Tell Mary to take him back to his neighborhood, the doctor says. He left a lot of blood on the floor, the nurse says. The clerk shakes her head. The doctor should be with you right away, Mrs. Galloway. The nurse and the doctor have sex on the operating table. It is seven forty-five. Your skin looks yellow, the doctor says.


[s]

Our Anniversary

a.

Stan and Stacey are married. Stacey is on a liquid diet. My father and mother are coming to town tomorrow, Stan says. Stan is thirty-five and he has a spot on his head where he has no hair. My mother and father want to eat steak and hamburgers at Mario’s, Stan says. Mario’s is a restaurant. Mario’s is very expensive. A man in the newspaper called Mario’s the best restaurant in the city. It is the best restaurant in the city, Chuck says. Stacey is on a goddamn liquid diet, Stan says.

b.

Chuck turns thirty-four on Monday. I want to have my birthday at Jake’s on fifteenth and Jackson. Ok, Molly says. Molly has straight black hair and she plays golf at a club in the suburbs. The workers at the club call Molly, Ms. The workers at the club say, Nice shot Molly. The grass is really very green at golf clubs in the suburbs. Even if the golf club is in the desert and the desert is in the suburbs. The grass is still very green. Deserts without golf courses are brown and dry and don’t get a lot of water. More deserts should have golf courses.

c.

I read something about a starving boy or something in Africa, Molly says to Chuck. What, Chuck says. I think we should give them something like some money or maybe some golf clubs. They sound like they are poor I think. I have an old set of golf clubs in the basement, Chuck says. Do you think we can send them to Africa. I’ll overnight them from the office, Chuck says. They are really lucky to have us, Molly says.

d.

Chuck goes into his basement and puts his golf clubs into a brown bag. Africa, the postman says. It’s a place that is really poor, Chuck says.

c.

I can only drink fruit shakes and water, Stacey says. My father and mother are going to be sad, Stan says. Stacey looks at her fingers and her fingers are fat. Maybe I can eat a small steak, Stacey thinks. You know what is going to happen if she eats a steak, Chuck says. Yeah, Stan says, she will vomit in the bathroom and we will have to go to the hospital. But at least my parents won’t be upset and sad. Last time, my parents were sad.

d.

I have yellow skin, Stacey thinks. She walks into the bathroom and she cries on the toilet. The bathroom is white and yellow and the bathroom has two mirrors and one of the mirrors is an oval and one of the mirrors is a rectangle. I will just have a little steak, Stacey says to herself. Molly drinks four martinis and falls down the stairs at the golf club in the suburbs. Are you ok, Howard asks. Howard is a caddy and he is tall and Molly thinks that he is handsome and she asks him if he wants to have sex in her car. While you are driving, Howard asks. I can’t drive Howard, Molly says, I am drunk. Oh, Howard says.

e.

Stan’s mother and father come to town. Stacey eats a steak at Mario’s. You know this could have killed her, Dr. Holden says. It was from Omaha, Stan says.


[s]

North Country Summer

I.

The sun is a big round ball. The sun is yellow and hot and sometimes the sun looks white. Hugh lives in a small town in Alaska. There are fishing boats in his town. From space, the town looks like it is a whale. You can’t see the town from space, Jackson says. Jackson builds rockets and works for the government. It would look like a whale anyway, Maria says. Hugh has sex with Maria in his glass house.

My house is square and it is made of glass, Hugh says. Hugh built his house on a river. The river runs through the town that looks like a whale if you could see it from space. The government is going to build a bridge next to your house, Jackson says. Maria makes small giraffe sounds with her throat when she is making sex. Giraffe’s don’t sound like that, Mark says. Mark works at a zoo and has a rash on his shoulder. You have a rash on your shoulder, Jackson says. Did you sleep with Maria, Hugh asks. Hugh has started to urinate in his pants. The doctor says that it is because he is nervous. I think they touched you when you were fourteen, Maria says.

Maria was in a pornographic movie when she was fourteen. She was living in a cabin in Western Virginia and her guardian thought that she looked like Madonna. Her guardian thought she looked like Marilyn Monroe. Her guardian thought she looked like Mia Farrow. Her guardian no longer speaks that well because both his lungs collapsed in the coal mine. Both your lungs collapsed in the coal mine, the doctor had said. The nurse that bathed him had bathed him at night and she had been naked and she had clean neat hair on her body that made her shadowed and her unshadowed body look like clay sculptures. You look like a sculpture, Maria’s guardian had said to the nurse. The nurse had smiled and turned and coddled him and they had loved.

The other hospital nurse wore a white shirt and she looked like she has been working out in the closet. She is only fourteen, the doctor said. She is my sister.

Maria’s guardian still writes Maria letters. I read the letters, Mark says. I have learned to paint and soon I will be able to spend more time outside. That is what the last letter said. I read it, Hugh says. Hugh has a party with wine and guests and waiters and small plates of food. How does he know where you live, Hugh asks Maria. I told him, Maria says. She wears pants that are short and make her thighs look like they are too big and Hugh doesn’t think that giraffe’s are probably really that good in bed anyway.

I don’t really like to walk in the water when it is springtime because the water is too cold.

II.

On the north side of the town there is a boy who is bleeding in the street because he was hit by a truck and the truck driver didn’t stop because the sun was hot and round and bright and the truck driver thought the boy was dead. I thought the boy was dead, the truck driver says and he spits chewing tobacco into the street and the police officer looks at him.

When the sun comes out in the spring and doesn’t go back under until the end of summer sometimes it is difficult to tell which side of the road is for driving and which side of the road is for walking. But that only happens in Alaska.

[s]

Sturbridge

a.

The tourists eat hot dogs and stand on the rocks.

b.

Martina has a smooth back and she is naked. Her skin is tanned and hugged against her bones. She is in wet water and she fishes. She trembles and she looks as though she does not want to see herself in more day or in more night.

c.

Look.

d.

Martina, Harrison says. Harrison is a cook. Harrison collects small rocks and puts the small rocks into rainbow colored sacks. The sacks sit on his mantle. Martina is quiet. Martina rocks back and forth on the bottoms of her feet. The fish are not hungry.

e.

Harrison has a cabin on a hill. There is a painting of his uncle in his cabin. The painting is above his mantle. Harrison’s uncle is a Native. The Natives burn their skin and howl and dance with their hands. The tourists take pictures and whisper. The tourists have small backpacks.

There are marks on Harrison’s hands. Some of the marks are straight. Some of the marks are crooked.

f.

On Tuesday, Martina suicides. She finds a rock in the wet water. The rock is sharp and the man who owns the general store says that it is not a rock. The man says that it is a weapon that the Natives created. The man has a moustache and he puts wax on his moustache.

g.

She killed herself with a weapon, Harrison says. Martina lies in the wet water and the wet water moves over her body and changes into red. Martina has her eyes open and she has marks on her arms that are straight and long and smooth and it looks like she cut herself many times with the smooth rock.

Is the rock a weapon, the priest asks.

h.

They will have to leave her here, Jefferson says. Jefferson is a tourist. He has flags in his house from seventeen countries. I have been to nineteen countries, Jefferson says. Jefferson wears glasses and his glasses get fogged when he is excited.

i.

Later, when it is night time, Harrison brings a wool blanket and wraps it around Martina. The water makes the blanket wet. At least she won’t look like the other people in the photographs, Harrison says. She is like the other people, the priest says. The tourists take photographs and stand on the bank.

This is what life is like here. Maybe another Native will suicide again before we return to Memphis, Jefferson says. Jefferson has his hand around his wife. His children eat ice cream and have big eyes.

[s]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]