THE PRESSURE IS ON

MY FRIEND SHELLEY

Shelley said that desolation doesn’t walk

and it doesn’t fly. I don’t think it crawls,

and I know it doesn’t dance. I am almost 

positive it doesn’t limbo, and it doesn’t

sit down or remain supine or levitate

or twirl like what’s his name the dancer

and you know how nobody eats

or sleeps or takes a bath in film

noir movies? That also is the way

of desolation, in addition to not

walking dancing flying crawling

limbo twirling or one more: doing

the cha cha (1961) - no -there is no 

eating or bath taking. Still, and I think 

that Shelley will support me on this, 

desolation has a feathery touch,

and fans us with plumes until

we slumber and then of course

there is a big KA-POW! KA-CHUNK!
but the rest is like the dream of the 

most gentle bear you can imagine, 
or maybe just bear monsters like Love 

just because it is a dream doesn’t mean 
it doesn’t have a shadow and inside 
the little dark of that a dream too 

SUBMARINE THREAT

...where the sun don’t shine and the wind don’t blow them turbines.

Peas can communicate and warn other peas of things like droughts. Peas can say: "Watch out! There's a drought coming!" and other peas receive this biochemical message and stand prepared for a drought.


How do you prepare for a drought? Peas say: you look really sad and limp and don't say very much and you just sit there and do nothing. Yep, that's right. Nothing.


If you ever see a pea like this, you will know that it has been talking to other peas, and that though we have each other, soon they, we, will not be able to hide from the power of the sun but, I mean, should we?


Why ...

The one in the middle said Please, call me Maurice.

SYLVIA 2

When Sylvia Plath asked Ted Hughes if cows preferred Milton or Chaucer he said Chaucer, of course, but gave no explanation and I was certain he would say because it rhymes with saucer, which it does, now of course we know all about cows and saucers. Let us not forget milk, where you find it, and how much it hates Milton, while faraway there is a field of animals on the hill somewhat that consider how these two touch each other in often surprising ways.

GUM AT THE BOTTOM OF THE GROCERY

What does it feel like to buy a painting for eight thousand dollars? Well I will tell you, I do not know. But I will tell you what it feels like to fall in love: I don’t know. But it feels different than art, which might surprise you. Not love - love feels exactly the same. Not knowing, though, feels completely different.

BARBERVILLE

I thought of all the people I have ever been, the one person I haven’t been is my barber. And of all the things that I have done, the one thing I haven’t done is stand behind me with a pair of scissors in my hand looking at my own neck. What would I do if I had such an opportunity? Naturally, I would run out of the room right away before I even had a chance to turn around. Not that I don’t like myself: I do. I would just be anxious to see who I am. But you say a barber shop is filled with mirrors and I would say you are right, it is, but I would run out of the room anyway. I want to see me as I am, but not like that.

A METAPHOR FOR MY LIFE

Of course that's me in there.

TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD: review by Crispy Flotilla

To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
129 min - Crime | Drama | Mystery - 16 March 1963 (USA)

Atticus Finch, a lawyer in the Depression-era South, defends a black man against an undeserved rape charge, and his kids against prejudice.

Director: Robert Mulligan
Writers: Harper Lee (novel), Horton Foote (screenplay)
Stars: Gregory Peck, John Megna and Frank Overton


REVIEW: Man, adults can look creepy in this movie.

MONDAY, JUNE 31, 1999

It was then that I finally realized that the kidney bean and the almond were related. And so I called them up, and invited them to dinner. The kidney bean said it would be delighted; the almond didn’t answer the phone. In the end, neither showed up and I ate alone. Fiber, salt.

How I miss my family!

HERE'S THE FUNNY THING

When Lassie was first on the air, it wasn’t called LASSIE at all. It was called JEFF’S COLLIE. Why didn’t they just call it LASSIE? It’s hard to imagine a world where Jeff was more recognizable and had more star power than Lassie. And I mean any Jeff at all. There is no famous Jeff more famous than Lassie. Of course, there was a time when there was no Lassie. But then again, there was a time where there was no Jeff. Or at least, no one cared that there was a Jeff, except Jeff’s parents. Or perhaps just his mother. Jeff’s father was also Jeff. Need I say more? Perhaps not.

Except this. It was called LASSIE, at first. Many years later, they changed it to JEFF’S COLLIE. I wish I could understand everything. I can’t.

Then Jeff died of a heart attack. Jeff’s mother would have buried him, but she was dead, too.

MY WALLS

My walls wouldn’t be covered in paint if my chair wasn’t covered in paint. And my sofa, also covered in paint like my stool is covered in paint. My fridge, my ashtray, my shoes, yes. Covered in paint. I own a beautiful painting on my wall - and it is also covered in paint, but it is the wrong paint. Well, some of it is, some of it isn’t. But the nightstand, the throw rug, the fireplace? All paint, everywhere, it’s all wrong, it’s all all wrong, what do I do. No. No. None of this would be covered in paint if I wasn’t holding a bucket of paint in my hand, covered in paint. The funny part is, the bucket is empty. But it does talk about paint. On the outside it says: PAINT, on the inside, nothing. Funny. Where’s my brush. I need to change all of this.