“Into the Memory Hole”

    I. The weeds need pulling—for the sake of the crop.  The little two-by-five foot plot at the edge of yard, in the only section that gets any dependable light, is overrun after another week of neglect.  Grasping handfuls of the unwanted shoots I wonder the purpose of weeds, if they are knowingly belligerent,…

Virtute et Labore

(the seventh chapter of Shell Games)   The new vagabond’s mind rippled outward like a vast, quickly growing web of consciousness catching flies of transcendence, as she flitted in the direction of Albany.  Molly Connors was a living, breathing paradox, she realized: alone yet with all things.  Another earlier paradox had zapped into her brain…

Tisk

  Don’t go looking for Tanokwans today, though.  There’s only one left in the year 2016, and he’s out in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, holed up on the second floor of a Howard Johnson.  There each day is spent, reading and critiquing every word Henry James ever wrote—even a pile of the author’s yellowed, crumpled notes…

Off on the New York Waltz

(the sixth chapter of Shell Games) No one noticed Molly Connors was gone for twelve hours.   Her mother came to the realization of her daughter’s disappearance only when the evening meal was taking longer than usual. “Is there twice as much food tonight, or just half as much me?”  had been her first thought, drawing…

The Lucky and the Sublime

(the fifth chapter of Shell Games)   The great town seal of Blandis depicts a man on his knees, his hands raised joyously toward a mountain with the sun’s rays shining from behind the tall peak.  The year this occurred, 1734, is emblazoned at the bottom.  All in all, it’s a very impressive work of…