260609: Night

There was an open casket at the altar. The colours of war hung limp and forlorn at the back of the chapel; “Get them out,” said the old bishop, “they have no place here.” I cried out in grief three times outside the cathedral while the bell tolled.

Inappropriate Love Quote

To make love takes two… or three… four, if you like that sort of thing… no, darling, five is inappropriate.”

Originally: “Love takes two” – anonymous

We are all of us.

I’m twenty-nine years-old, negro, living in Florence. I work in a construction company and I’m saving up to bring my 5 year-old kid daughter to Disneyland; she probably won’t remember when she’s older but we’ll bring the camera and the pictures will last a lifetime. Last week I was fifteen years-old, mid-teens, Korean-Australian descent, suburbs of Miami, Florida. I love listening to my ipod in the library because its quiet and the other kids don’t bother me. Nineteen years earlier, the twenty-fifth of November, I was a newborn Chinese in St Mary’s, London. I don’t know it yet but my parents are struggling to make ends meet in our small apartment near Portobello Street. Five years from now, I will be a middle-aged white policeman living in upstate New York, alone, catching thieves in the day and dreams of greenbacks floating from the sky at night. Right now. I am. Living. Slowly. In the. Months that. Chase me. Through the. Lonely. Years.

ILLUSOPEIN

ILLUSOPEIN [il-lu-so-pein] – noun

1. an emotionally-induced affliction or ailment, especially the variety that results from a heartache; “In the unpublished sequel of Mrs Clarke’s novel, Mr Strange learns that he will never see his wife again and eventually succumbs to illusopein.” & “The official report released by the department of historical literature and forensics suggests that the late Ms Capulet would have succumbed to a severe case of illusopein even if she somehow managed to survive her suicide attempt.”

“Woe betide the man who so suffers from illusopein, such is the cruelty of the heavens that those who suffer from spiritual death would suffer bodily as well.” – obscure 7th century Indian philosopher and theologian.

note: please read on the actual condition “Takotsubo Cardiomyopathy”, in fact an actual cardiovascular disease.

Prose-poesies: I Wish You Were Here

I have probably said this about a hundred times already, or two hundred times, I think.

But I wish you were here.

It’s cold and wet and outside the headlights all glare red, unkind.

Mommy’s made a huge pot of spaghetti; it’s got huge sun-burnt tomatoes and chunky meatballs and white button mushrooms in it.

But I’ve got no you to share it with.

This is a hundred times and one already, or two hundred and one.

But, darling, I wish you were here.

It’s autumn now, the leaves all falling off the trees and the women sit in churches on first easter mondays crying for their boys all dead and dying.

There’s a swell party and pretty carousels at the fair and I know you’d probably really like to go even if I wouldn’t.

But you aren’t here, baby.

I wish you were.

That’s a hundred and two, right, or two hundred and two?