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-- word biscuit --
-- love and bugs edition --
-- ray heinrich --
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love is almost as eternal as bugs
-ray
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< instructions for the moon >
when we were kids we had a solar system game
we spun an eleven-sided top that had the names of the planets printed on each side
(mercury to pluto and the sun and moon as well)
and each planet had different rules that were printed on a colored card
but
we lost the moon
so right at the first of every game we spun the top
and whoever spun the highest got to make up the rules for the moon
and these ranged from my brother roger's
"if you land there you die"
to my sister cathy's
"one point for every basket of cheese you bring back to earth"
then today
i was sorting some my dad's stuff (he died ten years ago)
and there they were
the instructions for the moon
- - -
< silly me >
you turn and look at me again and i don't know what to say this time
(or any other time)
how can i answer anything
when all i see
is your face
i count your eyes
two
and one nose
and one mouth
and two lips
(the one on top, quite conveniently, above the one below)
and silly me
to be
so much in love
- - -
< forgotten >
some sort of song is coming out the next door neighbor's window
and i find myself singing it
not knowing it or anything
just singing it
it mentions you
it mentions you again
and the chorus answers me as my heart used to do
the one i seem to have forgotten
the one i'm embarrassed to talk about
sings along reminding me of you
of how we sang
this same song
forgotten
like my heart
- - -
< the pure moon >
opens the night
a little wind
up in the trees
your breath
on my cheek
and quiet finds us
as we settle
- - -
< three blocks down >
your door
the blue one with the brass knob
the stairs outside
the black railing
feels cold
i turn and look across the street
a brick sidewalk
a small tree
a little weed close to its trunk
with a yellow flower
a tiny dot really
and a twig and a gum wrapper and a few brown leaves
- - -
< i used to be happy in houston >
southwest flight 154 out of hobby airport just took off and
i'm looking out the window and from the air houston looks exactly like what it is
a flat piece of shit
though after the recent rains
i can be more specific
it looks like lots of flat pieces of brownish-green runny shit
of course
this is pretty subjective
there must be someone down there who doesn't think it's so shitty
or at least just thinks it's the firm brown kind and is happy with that
yes
houston's not a bad place if shit makes you happy
- - -
< while off in the yard in the big pot that many creatures must think of as a small pond >
the green or blue
(depending on which way she and the sun are facing each other)
dragonfly
momentarily sits on the yellow and transparent glass globe
(positioned in an esthetically pleasing way as far as i'm concerned)
while she auditions a prospective mate who
flies down to the water's surface and
splashes drops of water as big as himself up
into the air far
above the rim and
while catching a bright bit of sun fall
into the sometimes but usually never very carefully manicured grass of my lawn
- - -
< dragonfly on a yellow glass ball >
sitting? no
perched? maybe
standing? yes
standing on six legs waiting for some tiny flying meal to come along
pays no attention to me
standing ? yes
standing on two legs but seeming perched waiting for the moment to come along
click, camera
and the dragonfly has flown off twice and returned
both of us
waiting
for the next moment
- - -
< meanwhile in the big pot that many creatures must think of as a small pond >
a tiny (5mm) bright green cricket whose
antennae alternate between deep brown and yellow stands
near the center of a salmon-colored water-lily blossom eating
bright yellow pollen from the outermost circle of stamens
- - -
< the paper wasps >
build their nest out from the white boards under
the eaves of my mom's house that will be mine someday and
i watch them each day since
they're by the kitchen door every day
as i take out the trash
as i walk the dog
as i let in the cats
and let them out
and let them in as well as me
and my neighbors and friends and people who would sell me god and
all the rest of the life that passes through and
they haven't stung us yet and
this is some sort of miracle since they are paper wasps and are know for such things and
someone
(but not the people who would sell me god)
suggested
that i kill them
- - -
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copy - bio - etc
copy: This edition of wordbiscuit e-letter by Ray Heinrich and
the free state of dogs is licensed under a Creative Commons
Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/
You are free to copy, distribute, display, and perform this
stuff should the fit strike you. As long as it's under the
following conditions: You must give Ray Heinrich credit and
praise his formidable writing talents. You may not use this
stuff for commercial purposes (though, if you could, you'd be
such a genius that I doubt any of the laws of man could
possibly deter you). You may not use this stuff in any
pro-republican campaign literature. You may not alter,
transform, or build upon this work unless you are really
sneaky. Any of these conditions can be waived (except for the
pro-republican campaign literature one) if you get permission
from Ray Heinrich (me) at ray@wordbiscuit.com which I'll
probably grant you since I'll be so grateful that you actually
read this far. And if you do, send a link or something to this
email address: ray@wordbiscuit.com (Site: wordbiscuit.com) --
and yes, i love it every time someone is amused enough to make
copies and send them to friends, pass them out on street
corners, read them in coffeehouses, or wrap them around a good,
honest fish.
bio: ray heinrich is a texas technofreak and hippie-socialist
wannabe who used to live on the outskirts of washington d.c.
but has since (inexplicably) moved back to texas. he writes for
thrills and attention. over the years his work has appeared in
many small, insignificant publications both in and out of
cyberspace (if you happen to be reading this in a publication,
let me assure you that this particular one is exceptional and
significant). ray (who happens to be the one writing this)
likes fooling with computers, has always been married, loves
dogs, remembers a BLUE fish and four BRONZE frogs, and has
taken to planting mysterious seeds in various places around a
forest where all his loves and desires reside.
etc: comments are VERY welcome (send to: ray@wordbiscuit.com ),
ALWAYS read and LOVED as proof that someone out there
acknowledges my existence, but not always responded to which is
a greedy, selfish act on my part which i seem to keep
committing but at least i'm not wearing any pants and the shirt
i used to say i was wearing had a quote on it from noam chomsky
and some chew marks left on it by a small, obstinate poodle who
was curled up, sleeping, resting his head on my feet a few
minutes ago but is now upstairs barking at a squirrel and now
he's back and now, a month later, he's back again and now,
another month later, he's upstairs barking cause he wants me to
come up and walk him which i'll have to do so i'll be back in a
minute, well, it's been a month and he's watching the baby
raccoons again and there's no living with him until they stop
catching and eating the moths on the screen door and you'd
think they'd be scared of him but no they're just ignoring us
and two months later they're lots bigger and we finally got
some rain and three months after that it's finally getting cold
except for my happy feet beneath a warm and still obstinate
poodle and more months later he's asleep in the other room and
my feet are cold and i have every intention of getting up and
doing something about this but not quite yet and even more
months later he's started up a .com with Ilane to sell virtual
cat and mouse jerky and a little more than a month later he's
back having burned out on e-business and ready to get back to
barking at anything that moves which, months later, is a five
foot king snake that thinks it's warmer in here than outside
and i grab the poodle before he can chew on it and try to catch
it but having warmed up in the house it's REALLY fast so i
explain to it that it's welcome and all but i'm not about to
feed it so it will just have to fend for itself and, by the
way, watch out for the poodle and if you should ever get up to
massachusetts, say hi to Ilane for me and four years later the
damned poodle is even worse but likes to lay his head on my
feet again and three months later he's chewed up my wallet
again, but this time he not only got my credit cards (they were
all maxed out anyway) but $25 in cash which i'm now trying to
piece together all the while thinking that life must be a
metaphor for something that only the dog knows and later the
dog is still ornery and he can't understand why there are now
five cats as well which he tries to ignore but they love him
and like to rub up against him when he's trying to pee and
later there seem to be eight cats which are so socialized
that they can't get along with any of the others which
reminds me of humans and this ad for talismans that are made
from jokes inscribed on estruscan tombs but personally I
prefer cheap rings won at carnavals and given to you by your
first love.
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