decided to take the bus to work. a knot of people,

a white dog dim in a totebag, squint vaguely west

where the bus’ll be rolling in. a crossingguard

motions across the way: a fenced-in schoolyard. older kids

running with games or late again. chatter dins. then pipes up

a loudspeaker, megaphone. my eyes search for what my ears can’t.

laughing baritone: it intones:

the killer awoke before dawn

and i think,

music. they must have the classics on. unfazed,

the playground games continue. he put his boots on,

the pendulum swings again, and eyes at the busstop

begin to flick uneasy. he took a face

from the ancient gallery and he

walked on dooown the hall

maybe a principal. a ranter? but as if it happens every day,

they begin to line up to go inside. the voice,

smug, deft, as if quoting shakespeare. as if

for them it might as well be shakespeare. dusted off

from the shelf:

more figurine than figure.

and i can tell you where i was

and in whose voice

i first heard each answer.

and

i don’t know

what’s cooler: my friend at work requiring

the spelling, or me being able to letter out

tchotchke

on the pink post-it.

down you with their motorcycle or off their spouse? Who

haven’t so much as batted a fly all their lives?

Shall I  become a senile, psycho old bat, too?

470 years from now I’m going to drive

my large, rusted hulk of a spacecar

[through whose windshield

I'll be barely tall enough to peer from]

really slow in front of you.

[in response to melsie's post]

[image courtesy http://www.livescience.com/humanbiology/041013_longevity_flies.html]

Sometimes when i read one word or glance at a captioned image,

another word, as if in spoken translation, pipes up

to replace the original. Today I read an article vindicating a supposition

I’ve had, that we weaken our immunity through

overuse of antibacterials. That antibacterials essentialy don’t do

what we really want

any soap to do, which is cleanse.

The subject of the study was the ever-studied

fruit fly. The article refers to the creature as “fruit fly” down

to the captioned illustration. But then it was as if a skinny hand raised

in the back of a classroom.

“Drosophila,” it corrected.

Ah, that’s the word. Thank you

elementary school science monica.

phone system choked. receptionist

schadenfreude

You never heard of Form B. If you ask me I’ll say,

“Form Who?”

German spam messages in my comment section. Obscene?

Ein Schloss, Ein poker Wurst, Ein Kopf.

 heheee….

before picture’s end. flickers

popcorn, tears, and on…

the year explained

i average one bitty artpiece per year. happens

in spring. maybe for a show; i wouldn’t care

otherwise. this time, i dropped a tiny plastic compass. front severed

from back, needle flew off. For it’s re-assembly, i retrofitted

the four directions in calendar fashion:

north= june

west= september

south= december

east= march

some further assembly, and an entire silver sharpie later,

i created a three-dimensional, 5″x5″-ish blueprint/model

of the turning of a year.

it progresses in a circle, counterclockwise.

while the piece itself draws favourable remarks, the logic

pinning it together (the year as a counterclockwise circle)

encourages almost universal ridicule

like a ptolemaic system

or flat-earther. i tell them, picture it

the way you observe the sun in one day:

east=morning/spring

north=noon/summer

west=evening/autumn

south=night/winter

Every time I see New Jersey Governor John Corzine in the news:

I can’t help but  think of:

[BTK serial killer]

but oh, did you hear?

They opened the casinos again.

at Fabric Row…”

 –street cleaner, 5th & Bainbridge

‘Mr. Movie.’”

 –overheard outside Cosi, 2nd & South

Cigar,

Cigars

[shop sign, rte. 309]

modern technology taketh away