the world has turned and left me here

decay

for the first time
i felt the decay in the people around me
white hot uranium
crisping over, greying,
rust spreading,
downgoing,
things were getting worse
everything was
less than before
peaked, spent
outran
a new rocket shot forth
and for the first time
we watched.

if you want a vision of the future winston

Among the sights and sounds this weekend:

• googlewhack
• on a street corner near me, someone put a piece of black tape over a portion of the "don't walk" hand, so that it came out like devil horns. yeah. rock on.
• bollywood night at the baltic room. spoiled indian princesses dancing just for you.
• capote
• saw a black flattened female boot in the street, one of those high-heel boots that zip up to the knees and are frankly kind of scary. is this a picture of the future? a car stomping on a human boot forever?

danny was a repeater

Danny was a repeater. The signal came and he passed it on to the others. Sometimes, he refactored the signal by adding extra gestures, by changing the inflection or by emphasizing different words. Essentially though he left it alone. He let it pass through him. To the others. As he did this he would watch his reflection in the night window. He saw himself animated by other's thoughts. He liked it that way.

"The way people drive these days, 40 miles an hour on a street like this!" An old man at the front of the bus was launching into one of those tired diatribes which reduce to: "Things changed."

"The way people drive these days," Danny said, "40 miles an hour" -- he paused for effect, his own little touch -- "on a street like this!" Extra emphasis & brows furrowed with indignation.

I sat at the back of the bus. Signal received. Would have filtered it out otherwise.

jamaimer, you've made a grave mistake

I was digging through my photo archives the other day and found this.