What we are going through

each of us

in our own damn way

is something like water going down the drain

What we are witnessing

is the fact printed in big BOLD letters

in indelible ink on all our chests:

"Life's a Killer"

Now, let me tell you, get over it,… Read full post »

1. Never claim to be timeless.  Tiresome is what people really mean when they call something timeless.

2. Do not tell a story if it sounds familiar. Unless it's being told as a story that everyone has heard before, and altered in the self-consciousness of that moment.

3. Leave the "big issu… Read full post »

I think  not

therefore

I am

unbothered by  all

that.

That's watching television.

I think

a whole helluva

LOT

Therefore

I think I must be

onto something.

But perhaps not...

That's reading newspapers.

I think

and then

I wait a while

(one or two years, sometimes)

To see what another

thinks,… Read full post »

3.

West came back over on Sunday.  Everything was quiet, he said, and he couldn't figure out where everyone had gone.  Maybe it's up in this town, I suggested, that happens from time to time.  Places dry up, have to recharge.  No, he insisted, it's there, it's just not coming to… Read full post »

(abridged version of a novella-in-the-making) 

1. 

Mirrors should reflect a bit more before sending back images. -Cocteau

West was in trouble.  Of course, he was always in trouble.  He said he knew the guy, but that didn't mean anything, and anyway the police were waiting right ou… Read full post »

Think it's time we see something longer here on OS in terms of writing than the usual one-off rant or hypersensitive "critique" of whatever has your tampons in a bind.

Will be putting up the first take of a novella I'm working on here soon.

Feel free to put up some… Read full post »

After the video, Naas didn't know what to do.  Dr. Vasich had left them with their own thoughts.  They sat for a while in silence in the big empty lecture hall, and finally Andrea spoke.

"It's not going to be hard to find a parking space at least."

Naas took a… Read full post »

Naas was in the Soup.

There were a group of nuns and they were whispering to each other.  At first Naas thought they might be DUO's, but their robes, billowing in the chill wind of an overcast day, were the heavy black raimant of regular Church clergy, not the dark blue… Read full post »

"There.  That should feel better."

The doctor, having finished adjusting the mesh cap with electrodes stretched across Naas's head, stepped back, and the light flashed directly in his eyes again.  He blinked but didn't look away.  He couldn't have done so… Read full post »

"Perhaps you two should spend some time together.  Get to know one another.  There are, after all, some more human requirements involved..."

They were standing in the hall outside the dining area.

"There's Club Noxx," Andrea said, and Naas and the doctor looked at her in mild surprise. … Read full post »

"Please, come in."

For a moment Naas didn't move.  He had the feeling that something threatening lay just beyond the threshold of the door, something hard to define.

"Please," the voice repeated, nearer, more insistent.  "Here, I'll get the lights..."

A square of deep blue illumination appe… Read full post »

"Would you look at me?"

No "sir" after the question.  Naas looked up at the man.  It wasn't that he was taller, or that Naas was so short--he was well over six feet, thin, muscular--but the man was standing on a higher level.  The area on the other side of the… Read full post »

"The past is the one thing we are not prisoners of.  We can do with the past exactly what we wish.  What we can't do is to change its consequences."

-John Berger, Ways of Seeing 

There was nothing.

And then they were through.

The descent in the… Read full post »

Richy was an asshole and lived in a convent sixty stories high.  He thought he knew everything.

One day Tom came to town--and "old" friend--and said, "Richy, I bet you never seen this City.  I mean close up, real close up."

And Richy said, swirling the perfect cubes in his glass, "Well… Read full post »

Derek was fine and Derek had to be there by seven or eight or maybe it was later but he didn't think it was important now he was on his way and once you're on your way you don't care anymore how late you'll be it becomes kind of part of… Read full post »

(automatic writing exercise, with minimal corrections -- For Sam B.) 

There were forty-seven steps.  He'd counted them.  He'd counted them going up, and he'd counted them going down.  The seventeenth and twenty-third ones were uneven.  The rest were stur… Read full post »

And a very Happy New Year (if we don't all starve to death).

Then there was this old woman, and they wouldn't leave this old woman alone.   First  they hacked away at some bush she had beside the driveway, and they left pieces in the road.  Then they tied ripped strips of cloth--God knows what they used--to the eaves of her garage, right wh… Read full post »

In a jar in the garage

there was a mouse.

And in a corner by the window

there was a spider.

The mouse had been forgotten,

the spider slept soundly.

The mouse, upon its capture,

had been given fine lettuce and leaves

and wood chips. (I don't know why

they put in wood… Read full post »

I am working on a machine, and it is not going well.  Also I am inside the machine.  Covered in grease and dirt.  Again I am younger.  There is not much room to move, and whenever I try to adjust various parts my arms hit against gears, belts, giant transistors.  There… Read full post »

There are a series of pictures being presented to me in a drawing room, each one set up on an easel, shown to me for a moment, and then removed.  Very neat, all white interior, like a gallery.  The people bringing in the paintings, one by one, are dressed… Read full post »

I am walking along a shoreline, rocky, overgrown with pale green seaweed.  Somehow I know this is Corfu, though I have never been there.  Now there is a boy walking at my side--although I do not know how long he has been with me.  He is dark, trim, in swimming-shorts, and the… Read full post »

I am in a hotel.  Dim lighting, a grand staircase, someone is hauling my luggage up the steps ahead of me.  There is a vague feeling of unease.  The bellhop apologizes that there is no elevator service--they've been having problems.  I ask if I can get some food.  The an… Read full post »

I am standing at the edge of a long gravel road.  In the distance there are several low-lying buildings of indeterminate make or function.  Factories? 

I am alone, but there appears to be a second presence with me.  There is breathing nearby, in the weeds beside the road, somethi… Read full post »

I was taking a shit. 

It was just after 4 am, and Tommy had awakened me with a telephone call to tell me to get ready, it was time to go.  Enjoying the last moment of tension free peace I knew I would have for the rest of the day, I… Read full post »