“The bearer of evil tidings,

When he was halfway there,

Remembered that evil tidings

Were a dangerous thing to bear.”

Robert Frost

Derelix  Jersey

“Shoot them in the temple. Aim for the temple and they will go down.” This is what the radio said, some time ago, and all the other rubbish that spills from those speakers is worthless. Maintain faith, faith in one’s self, but this is difficult to do. (more…)

I

Jimmy  Thompson

My evening in West Texas begins in a Mexican cantina with a Miller and large chili. The chips seemed heavy, so the jukebox in the corner becomes my focus. I play a couple of Fleetwood Mac tunes while sipping beer and slurping chili with a plastic spoon. Gazing out the window, there is a small Indian boy in a corral. He’s trying to pull a wild horse into a barn, which is a spectacle. The mood in the cantina seems sour, had the news spread? How many more like me were there? Strange nervousness affects my composure and chili dribbles form my mouth onto the table. The jaw munches in slow motion. Now, I am eerily aware, that people in the cantina are becoming uneasy with this performance and my sudden lack of neatness is causing stares. Damn this planet. I leave; no tip this time. No, there’s a need for fast wind to ease this tension and loose my nerves; my aggression is seeping and becoming impetuous. (more…)

I follow along a large cornfield. The field has been neglected and the stalks have begun to wither and lean towards the earth. Weeds populate the rows and have been left unchecked and are growing wild. A small path leads up a hill. The corn in bordered by a thick wood and I can see little as I walk. I walk straight and quickly until it ends. (more…)

The Early Sun Cemetery was created sometime during World War I, and according to records no one has been buried there since 1945. It is about the size of a basketball court and adjacent to a small library which is located across the street from an abandoned Naval Ship yard. There are several old oaks in the middle of the yard and they provide a porous canopy across the hundred or so headstones. The stones are cracked and chipped and many are illegible because years of moss and fungus have faded the original engravings. However, the grass, what little there is, is always neatly trimmed and dead limbs and trash are always picked up by the library’s janitor. In the sunlight the graveyard appears well kept and pleasant, but moonlight shadows cast by a neighboring church’s bell tower and oak trees create a different appearance when the sun falls. The yard appears to illuminate in night with the touch of the moon’s rays. (more…)