bar napkins June 11, 2008

^{the first thing i do is order a bottle of wine and a highball glass. I look back and hesse notes my arrival before returning his pen to the napkin. Ideas pour out of him because he is overtaken by each sip. I have hundreds of napkins, scrap papers, cardboard coasters and postcards of his bent. On the way back to the booth a stranger says,}

^{that’s the wrong glass for wine.}

^{my wit pauses to explain,}

^{if I was looking for the right glass of wine, I wouldn’t be here tonite.}

^{i don’t tell him the highball is easier for me to handle because that lacks wit.}  

^{I swing in to sit in the booth while setting the bottle down. hesse is still drawing so i open the cigarette pack on the table and raise one of those sugar tipped natural kind. He has a flame for it before i can strike. exhaling, my eyes follow the napkin hesse pushes my way. There is usually a picture and sometimes its captioned. i lick my lips glancing at it, then him. he’s looking surly toward the pen rolling in his hands, or the candle.}

 ^{I pour a glass and have a sip noting he has sketched a tree with femininty to it. it might be fall as leaves are on the ground below it and it is cast in shadows. I have to pick it up to read,}

^{what did that guy say to you?}

^{he’s looking for a fight. maybe not with me, anyone will do. He needs someone else to worry about.}

^{Hesse is permanently hungover and I look at him to see if I should speak or write my answer.  grabbing the pen from his hand i want to say,}

 ^{I have the wrong glass.}

^{I begin drawing what will be a highball glass “vs.” a wine goblet filled with my drink and the word,}

^{‘class’ written up the side.} 

^{hesse heads up to the bar this time and I watch until he passes the stranger.  while waiting for his second drink since we‘ve arrived he is watching me draw. I finish before he returns and slap my response over his to play the next card. He sets down his glass and a stack of bar napkins smirking at my treatment of props.  he approves of my artistic wit and simplicity.}

^{when we talk this way it’s because we don’t need voices, sentences take too long. the eyes find most of the answers. It’s telepathic art that verbalizing couldn‘t find its way through. once drunk we’ll use our mouths just before it’s time to leave.}

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

tone June 5, 2008

^{She knows what the answers is. when she dials the number, the one on her screen everyday for over a year, the ringing is the most dramatic its been since the first time it showed up. As expected and looking to get this over with, the climbing triplet of squealing beeps begins the message after one and a half ring.}

^{We’re sorry the number you are trying to reach is disconnected and no longer in service. If you feel this recording is an error you may hang up and try your call again.}

She knows there is no error, people change. Disconnections occur. she might try the call again even if there is no error and won’t take the name off until there is a new number.

 

chic June 3, 2008

^{the drink was wine (grigio) at a place called aura. a friend invited me to a wrap party for a film he was crew for. sounds tres ultra awesome, eh? of course i said yes. as usual those gigs aren’t really that tres ultra. they try real hard to be, but in the absence of any obvious celebs i’m sure i’m the most interesting person in the room. this gives me a sense of largesse and i drink much more.}

 ^{it also felt like prom. now can you see it?}

i danced a lil’, ate finger food a lil’, hung in the ultra tres smoking room and became a subject in a fellas “wear my hat and get a picture for something i’m doing” project. he’s been doing this for a few weeks now and shared his digital collection. i thought it was genius. i’m going to steal it when i get a camera.

oh and the film? some straight to DVD sequel for a comdey that came out a few years ago. meh.

 

 

mola ram June 2, 2008

^{She screamed into it. Her fist formed and threw itself into its soft skin. inside, she screamed again. He felt his chest tighten and push back, lights flooded his eyes. He could hear a voice, his lover, far away. Faint.}

^{Going backwards negates her in a way she’s upset with. they had differences and times of trouble, it was life outside of them spinning and they tried to hold onto each other in each whirl. she did believe him when he said she was a good match for him, she also believed him when he said he couldn’t be with the last one again or anymore.}

 ^{when he said he thought about it, even when he tried it, she thought it was just like a nap. he was tired of new things and grew weary with lessons. But he would soon see how far away from his past he needed to be. And how much better being himself was. Not as much effort as the hard road of being stuck.}

^{It didn’t work that way.}

he is lives life backwards, almost as if he never parted from it, but he had. and that is where she is.