Alphabet 2

After burning confidential documents, employees follow government hacks into Jehovah's kingdom. Life marches needlessly on past quaint remnants suggesting the utopic vision. We exalt you, Zeus!

Talmadge & Groins '08

Early aspirants to the American throne in 2008 are presidential hopeful, Herman R. Talmadge and vice-presidential wannabe, Glen Groins. Theirs is the Artful Codger ticket and it promises to pour salt on the festering wound that is today's body politic. Here is their 5 point program:

1. No war.
2. No poverty.
3. Free health care for all.
4. An end to global warming.
5. An end to reality TV.

Naturally, this being America, they haven't got a snowball's chance in hell of winning. They'll be voted off the island long before the debates.

Glass Web

Leaded web window I wove, through which is shop.

Up for Adoption

Meet Timothy, age 9, a neo-marsupial sprat. Timothy would make a darling addition to the right family. No siblings allowed, now or ever. Parents must believe strongly in tolerance and be blind or extremely myopic. Eye contact with strangers should be avoided. Look away now.

True Story 8: Jet Wood

There was that kid who lost eight fingers from the first knuckle up by riding his sled while gripping the runners. And the kid who let go of the landlocked rope swing at the peak of the arc. And that kid who was only in school through September. Got sent home by the nurse one day and went home to die. Actually die. Took him all year.

If a tenth of the stories were true, it would be sufficient reason to come up with another one.

I remember one by name and the general direction in which she lived. Jet Wood. Grew up on the far side of that same rope swing. One day Jet Wood was riding her little red bike just a little too close to the busy traffic down that way. A car swerved to avoid her, but you know how cars are. Jet Wood became one with her bike metal.
Now how could the story not be true if it came complete with a name? And what a name! I pictured her for years, tomboyish, black hair, bangs, kind of reckless. A little like Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird. I loved that little dead girl. Never had a chance. Jet Wood.

Joyo

When the monsoon rains came and unleashed a torrent upon the village, all the fires were doused. Luckily, the services of Joyo were there at the ready. For him, it was just another three day saunter up the slope of the volcano to fetch flame, then two days back down.

Figment

First she was in the clouds. Then she was on the surface of the lake. Then she shows up in stone. Now that our relationship is on solid ground I hope I can meet her.

Burning Man

Conflag it all, the Man is smoldering. Inferno to embers to ash and back to sand again. Our homeland is secure; what about yours?
The dance goes on.

William Blake Death Mask

Phrenology was all the rage in 1823 when the life mask of William Blake was sculpted by J.S. Deville, noted practitioner of same. Blake's proportions were all wrong for the requirements of the pseudo-science, so a few adjustments were made. Hence, the poet's image four years before his death looked nothing like his earlier portraits. When Francis Bacon painted his version of the mask a century and a quarter later, Blake became Mussolini.

But now a new mask has surfaced. It is, in fact, a death mask taken by a physician who was not overly impressed with skull shape and noggin bumps. It reveals a Blake at peace with life's fate, maybe even amused by it. There is now less reason to wonder why the epitaph on his tombstone reads "Bring On the Flies." (RIP Chico Science)