More Child Fear
after Jim Harrison
Deviled eggs. Scalded water. Papery wasps nests.
Women with tremulous breasts. Going down the swimming pool drain.
Rattle snake tensing beneath the sole of my red Sesame Street boot.
Giant green lake eels covered in moss. Electrified frying of summer bugs.
White German Shepherd runs down Stanley Avenue in a Yonkers of
bitter memory. Dentist's drills & spitting blood into a white porcelain sink.
Hairy Kissinger and jowly Nixon. Steel haired elementary principal whose disembodied voice
announced the latest assassination. Arson at the Jewish Community Center, missing
classmates, two empty chairs. Peeling sunburn, the long hacking cough of parents,
two dog graves dug with toy shovels. The persistent thought that I must
always remember to impersonate the nearly normal.
That God could not hear my prayers. Or maybe it's true, Jim,
you sumbitch, perhaps planes fly holes in all our stalled prayers.
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Stark images alive in a flash fiction movie here. Time strung together with memories that make up a life. And all the feelings of up and down that come with it. Nice.
Love the form to this and the collection of thoughts and images. The last line is excellent!
Great opening, Gary. Strong imagery. Effective piece.
thanks for reading & commenting, susan, christian and sam--
Wow. Love the image of the German Shepard and the steeled hair principal. Well, so much good imagery jumps out here. And the last line is very nice.
thank you shelagh--
What does spasso mean? A spasso means out of work. Spastico? I'm trying not to say "spasmodic" or "spazz."
Words for wow. I liked this better on second read. It rolls faster & tighter than I first perceived, not as a jumble, but as an orchestrated remembrance of (resemblance to) things of childhood, private, cultural & global. Stunning short images, the two empty chairs.
Then this great line:
"The persistent thought that I must always remember to impersonate the nearly normal."
& the end is a kicker.
ann: i love that thought/image, of an unemployed spastico.
no idea. as i continually say--
Must be read aloud. Must be read aloud. Must be READ ALOUD!
Gary,
This is just really direct and fantastic!
Jerry
Jon & Jerry: I thank you both
The line breaks on this poem got ALL messed up, l& ook nothing like what I set to the page--oh well.
Distant yet hard hitting lines.
A damn cool painting. Thanks Gary.
thanks, michael
Yikes-- fabulous. sad
fav
thank you, susan--
oh those dentists drills. Where was god anyway?
estelle,
lol
good question, there--
screaming with us?
g
I have read several of your stories now, Gary, and what blows me away is that they are all different. I got flash backs from this one. I had a great dentist when I was a kid but I could see that white porcelain bowl again!Fav line: "The persistent thought that I must always remember to impersonate the nearly normal".
Fav
myra, so pleased to see you reading my stuff, and thanks for the comments, really--
myra, so pleased to see you reading my stuff, and thanks for the comments, really--
Strong imagery, very relateable. Perfect title, first line and surprising last line. Great piece.