Cartoid

Central to the valley runs the gigantic tributary and the tributary does its job. A pulse echoes off the walls and citizens hear it for the years. Swimming and kayaking are the most popular of events thought some have been known to get carried away. You wouldn't believe how much people pay for a visit to Cartoid Valley, I've bought so many tickets to take the train out, come to think of it, I don't really know what ever happened to that plan.

Lady Bluestocking

Lady Bluestocking gave her life for tourism

Oh poor lady, she sat there all day long to entertain. The boys-of-the-village would come and Lady would shoo them away with a handkerchief or send her dogs.

Society men would call and laugh, put her in a place she did not fit. Either that or they were drawn away to her more attractive and appeasing guests with X chromosomes. 

Lady Bluestocking was surrounded by thousands of books by men she could never meet and hundreds who would never meet her.

But it was enough, it was enough to fill her with a fire that inspired the great Lady to sit in that room day in and day out, taking tea and two meals before retiring to a room that nobody visited. 

She died in the reading room, in the presence of some Company, fairly indistinguishable from any others she entertained. 

They say she gripped a Plato in her hand and nobody could get it loose, they had to cut holes in her dress so they could get it past that damned tome and get her looking presentable. Up in that little oaken box, filled with red velvet and pale skin, which was hardly more pale or cold than it had ever been historically.

grip

shaking hands with Captain Carter and a light comes on 

i'll drag all my LP's out to the front yard and grind them into the walk with my heel

tear up all the tapes and tell my mother to never show your picture again

i'll visit every spot we ever shared and form new associations

all to spite you or all to improve? where does the difference lie?

i'm gonna grip your arm

and tell you to get one of your own

if you could feel my head right now

if you could see the soles of my shoes

if you could smell your breath you'd never kiss me again

so messed up

i've been sitting up straight all day

so baby let's get bent 

i wanna hunch and slump with you 

up and down  the halls 

i hear the neighbors banging on the wall

have them turn up the disco because the doctor's out

and i've gotta jive just one more time

my joints are gonna pop and crack til the early morning dawns

then i'll look around for a heating pad or something

precipice

standing out on the harrowing precipice holding something sweet in his hand

he screams and yells, damning your fucking name demanding a confrontation

staring deep down, searching for the rumored fear

determined to stare down the crazy hellish behemoth he faced in years gone by

a long way away he hears the fair and cant figure which was the last experience

screams himself sore looks back sits down checks the watch and all he wants is something to lean up against

island day

to-day is island day, the day when we honor those stalwart men

my friends and ladies pour into the street to sing the praise, tossing confetti as they scream

the parade goes on for miles, coagulating traffic on each and every block

try as they might, the celebrators never reach a shore, let alone connect any two

and as the cameras flash and people scream the islands sit

they sit and think, or draw, or cry or eat whatever it is they do

maybe someday you'll build a boat

do they know and do they care? why would you even ask?

archaelogy

"Nights feel so empty when you're sleeping with a ghost", she whispered, waking the man from his sleep as she closed the book. He awoke with a grunt and was unconscious again without any issue. She stood up to look out on to the street. Here in the late evening, cars passed by at high speeds through the driving snow, on their way to countless possible endings. Her hands traced down the outside of the storm window he installed last season before she flicked on the space heater and lay down.