We made snares from long grasses, We caught one in ten; then We prodded a bite and We wore them as earrings.
I pinched their their necks for dewlaps — Their red-ringed and speckled yellow arcs. You, transfixed, favored not color but Their harrassed concitations.
Was it the yelp of surprise At the first bite? Or was it watching them wriggle by their tails, defying gravity A St. Anthony or St. Vitus?
We heard their tails grew back, but We lacked the patience; We prayed to see Our dismemberments regenerate.
She delivered a dead man aboard pretending he was drunk. Otherwise, she delivered groceries ordered through an app. Though it must be said that she sometimes delivered blows to the head. The unsuspecting victims then became the next batch of sailors to be delivered up for impressment. She didn’t do any of the processing herself—she merely dropped off the victims, and on occasion delivered arithmetic books to various regional libraries.
One day she struck an unsuspecting Calculus book (like it was 1812) and sent a number of differential and multivariable maths skittering across the highway. She knew an opportunity when she struck one.
Upon exiting her impressment mobile she herself was struck, in the most integral of manners, by an errant British man-o’-war—three hundred miles off course from a breadfruit processing plant. It goes to show that calculus and impressment aren’t complementary.
You may now return to your regularly scheduled life. Thank you.
What I’m Listening To:
“Damn it, honey When you jump up and down Your chains almost sound like a tambourine”
The sky empties its color into the sea— Green clouds of pollen choke the day.
At night the sky inhales The darkness of deep space— The stars unsheathed burn Their naked need.
While we, deluded, Play with guns And greed.
What I’m Reading:
“Is this what America is about? A reign of error countered by a reign of terror? And everything playing out against a plague killing millions around the world. What did it all amount to?”
the moon will be new tonight the jet stream will be racing overhead how many meteors in that shower
how many bright fireballs until we are fully human
What I’m Reading:
“I watched the torn sky bend with the wind . .. white white white as far as the eye can see ahead a blinding flash of white … (The cabin reeks of exploded star).”
The wings are shearing The fuselage vibrates hot Head down between knees There are no parachutes here Grit your teeth close your eyes—NOW.
What I’m Reading:
“All of us moderns … can get away with a lot of waste when the economy is good. We forget that conditions fluctuate, and we may not be able to anticipate when conditions will change. By that time, we may already have become attached to an expensive lifestyle, leaving an enforced diminished lifestyle or bankruptcy as the sole outs.”
1. Wild dogs, squirrels, feral hogs, and bear were constant staples of our cook pots. We used them to supplement our two pounds allotment of rice each month.
2. “I brought everything but that. I deny the existence of that. I would bring anything but that thing,” she said.
3. So if you’ve got a family of four you’re spending $1000, just on entrance fees.
4. “Maquis- Resistance groups. Maquis ( World War II), predominantly rural French guerrilla groups… The network of rural bases operated by the Communist Party of Kampuchea prior to the Cambodian Civil War…”
5. Luna moths were another treat I learned to eat, with its wings removed and roasted over an open fire it made for the perfect bite.
6. I imagine all this through the mind of a sick, desocialized, and dissociative woman, who lost her family. Her children taken by the state. Her husband accidentally decapitated at work. Her only remaining family burned to death in a wildfire.
7. When we came upon the carcass of a moose we thought it a godsend. And we all ate the better pieces that had not been scavenged or turned to rot. It was after that day that we eventually all became sick and most of our party perished.
8. Just as he was dying, I set a mangy dog to disemboweling him, so the last thing he felt and saw were the teeth of a ravenous cur at his intestines.
9. We staggered along, one wet day after another, we learned to control our hunger. We had to keep moving to make our monthly rice pick-ups. We barely had time for concerted hunting. If we came upon something we quickly killed it and slogged along.
10. She, in time, became untethered and violent. She fantasized of fixing his larynx in some way so he couldn’t scream any more. Perhaps tie him up and deprive him of food and water until he wasted away, sharp and angular, into a bony effigy.
11. We made a desperate attempt to make the food cache before it was removed by the enemy. We succumbed slowly, one or two of us a day. At the end of two weeks only Cruz and I were left alive, but we were in a very bad way and then you found us near death at the banks of the river.
12. The newly moved-in family next door with an over abundance of everything doesn’t sit right with her. The neighbor child was overly loud, had ADHD, and couldn’t control himself.
13. The tall man, dressed in black, sitting in the first row, removed his mask and said, “So this is how a loving god looks over his children?”
What I’m Reading:
“I have to write what’s difficult, otherwise it is difficult to write.”
