Was a pyrot
they pet their own cat. they pet the other guy’s cat. they pet the lady’s cat.
within the abyss there is another abyss or it’s not an abyss, p.s. it’s not an abyss
was a pyRomanian
Rocket of Emblem Made
Pure Fluttery Goodness, dirempt and verklempt
Ranshatagga and his Horde of Demunz
One Heart One Life One Breath.
oh, there is another one!
The child upon learning that there was a way of walking and a month that shared the same name
Wondered if there might be a way of walking that corresponded to September
And more generally, if all months and ways of walking referred to a reality as yet unseen
The father could barely see his child because he was lost in work, he was defending
Those accused of crimes many of whom had committed crimes. His head hurt.
He grabbed a handfull of green-and-yellow pills. September oranged apace.
September oranged anon. The teacher, Mr. Fuentes, referred to the god Mars
We walk a certain way when we are going off to war. The Romans named a month
For war, when the fields were fallow. His father had fled the war and come to New York City
Pale Fuentes knew he told a lie. There was no Mars. There was no way to stop marching.
But he was wrong and there was. Oh God, there was and is.
Decembering the child took an airplane to a new land of silver foil
And why do we call it foil? Because it reminds us
First Outside Inside Left.
The first one, to travel from outside to inside is left. But we are right
To yearn for another day.
–Cam-Joseph Brinewood, 1922
Rom-com about a man who faked his own death and a woman who faked her own life
Antz but they’re not ants they’re weasels
Dr. Strangelove in the paleolithic
a murder mystery in a world without violence and murder is saying something cruel
a collection of people hurtling downwards in an enormous elevator where the trip takes lifetimes
a child discovers her parents are her dream
a language that provides the rules for a new kind of emotion
five people concoct a scheme but none of them knows why or what the goal is
a massive mole the size of twenty or thirty godzillas erupts from the earth after centuries and demands to be given sight only to learn its remarkable hearing gives it an amazing skill at music.
it might be friends with a little girl made of gold
Is called in other tradition’s “The Eruption of the Tessellated Clown.”
And it is easy to understand except when you are going through it.
Then it is nearly impossible. So don’t try.
But when you find you are outside the orchard looking in you may find yourself reflecting “I could never have followed those rules. I did not need to eat that fruit! The rules were designed to be impossible to follow. The fruit only seemed delicious because it was against the rules. The owner of that orchard was not God, but Satan.”
And when you find the ground quaking beneath your feet you may realized in that split second that the tessellated clown is on his way.
and give you someone else’s instead — someone like you
and does that mean I won’t die? no, you will.
but it won’t be yours. and so what? if nothing is mine?
so what for who? for you? for them?
I’m telling you make a pile of beans, one for every reason you love today
exactly as many are in the pile which means why I fear I will not get another one.
I heard once Marrano Galba unfurled his fingers and within was a coin that bore the picture of the emperor
I keep that coin. I never sold it, but I promised to show it to so many people
I drew up contracts — on such and such a day you may see the coin for one minute and now
My title to the coin I got from Galba is worried with liens, it’s tangled beyond all recompense
Yes even when The Watchers from Beyond roll up the sky like a scroll. Even then.
Especially then.
Eric Linus Kaplan 