Descending from the mountains, down the plain, Into the valley, I have found a cave To live in and to contemplate my pain And joy, the love and strife designed…
Oh loving troubadours, you brought us love,
The love we know, to birth — a love of death —
From fairyland and from Medieval minds
Brought modern man to life. And me, my love.
Their love is not a love of things. Their love
Is not for neighbors. Sex is not enough.
It is to find completion of oneself —
It’s one’s rebirth within one’s lover’s love.
Dear, sweet, sweet suffering you bring me, love,
I sacrifice myself, my love, to you. …
FICTION
There are ten of us locked down here in Bobby Markson’s basement since he brought me, my wife, and our three children here this morning. My oldest will be going to Kindergarten this Fall. This upsets my wife, but I’ll be glad to get at least one of them out of the house at least occasionally. On second, thought, that’s not really an appropriate thing to be thinking at the moment, given the circumstances, so scratch that. Randy Jacobs and his wife, Carla, and Adam and Jennifer Haye and their twelve-year-old daughter Samantha are also here. I have no idea what time it is. It may be noon by now. We are all here for the same reason: none of us would (in my case, could) give Markson a hundred dollars. Now he is saying we cannot leave unless we come up with two hundred dollars, to cover his expenses for keeping us here. …
FABLE
One bright day, when the Earth was young — well, at least a bit younger than today — a few of the animals gathered together and began to argue among themselves about which of them was clearly the greatest. …
About five and a half years ago, I predicted there would be a civil war in the Republican Party. Of course, I couldn’t predict that Donald Trump would be President, or that he would help accelerate the particular aspects of the Right Iwas identifying five years ago, but I think it’s clear that I was definitely onto something. …
FICTION
The gallery is on my way to work, so I have to see those awful idols every day as I walk to work. I’m a bus boy at Ali’s Lebanese Restaurant. Desperation can even make a man work with heathens. Keep an eye on them, that’s what I do. Except Sundays. Won’t work Sundays.
Don’t make enough to have much except this ratty old apartment. Those are my only roommates, companions: a bunch of old brown rats. Women at church are all married, and I ain’t marrying anyone not of the faith. I won’t live an unclean life, as God in His holiness commands it. …
I am anointed by the dews that flow From you — you raise me up, You bring me to myself and make me know Myself as I drink from your…
SHORT STORY
Jim’s brown and white basset hound spun around two, three times before lying down. Pearl came out of their bedroom and sat beside Jim on the couch. She was wearing the gown he had found in a used clothing store but had told her he bought new. Little lies like these he told without worry — revenge, he felt, on her buying him a dog he could only look at and walk and not play things like catch or frisbee. The dog only looked at the ball and ignored the frisbee, which Jim always threw outside the hound’s range of vision. …
Whatever happens, I’ll love you — I’ll hold You in my heart as ore grips tightly gold. I cannot dream a world without you — cold Steel is the world…
FICTION
It was Saturday, so Earl had not shaved that morning. He contemplated growing a beard, then remembers how it itched after three days and decided to shave tomorrow. But today was Saturday, and Earl was going to do some work in the garage — change the oil in all their cars. His, Marilyn’s, and Sean’s. That is why he was wearing an old t-shirt and a holey pair of jeans.
Sean was watching T.V. when Earl walked into the living room. Sean was Marilyn’s son from her first marriage. Standing behind Sean for a moment, he wondered again why Sean has not applied to go to college in the Fall. He was smart enough, as the high school grades showed — despite the fact that Earl had never seen Sean do any homework. A’s without effort. A waste to throw it away. He thought he should have insisted Sean go to college, but he knew he could not get Sean to do anything that way. And reverse psychology did not work, either. Sean seemed determined to prove him right whenever he tried that. …
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