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DECLARATION
Someone declared it Star Wars Day, but that is not fair to the progenitors of that series of films and countless spinoffs. Imaging Captain Kirk engaged with a Klingon in a lightsaber battle, Mr. Spock standing by and commenting “illogical.”. And for that matter, why not imagine Gort looking down at Klaatu and saying, “No,…
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VICTOR
In our timeof never-ending war,punctured by the briefestlulls we now call peace,someone, someonesmore likely, will talkabout whom will bethe victor, to whomshall go the spoils.Bierce, that perpetualcynic, reminded usthat peace was a periodof cheating betweentwo periods of fighting.But no one pausesto consider thatin any war there areno true victorsonly the victimsunwillingly offered upin sacrifice to…
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LISTING
I suppose I shouldmake a list of the thingsI don’t very much like. I’m an optimist so the listwon’t be all that long, thoughit grows the more I think about it. I was going to putmy ex-wife on the listbut she doesn’t like meand I have no feelingsfor her either way. So it’s down toautocrats…
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MILLIMETER
I would love to work for the Postal Service. I don’t want my own route, and I certainly do not have the right temperment for working at the counter. The health insurance is good, and the retirement would be something to look forward to. But I want one job in particular. I want to the…
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HABIT
When you say, she said,that you are a creatureof habit, I have a hardtime imagining you asany sort of nun, or evena monk for that matter. Perhaps, he responded, Ishould emulate KingHenry and start my ownspinoff church, wherethe priestly vestmentswould be jeans and tees. But I would require thatparishioners not weartie dyes on Sunday andCrocs…
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WORDS, WORDS, WORDS
My mother surrouned mewith books, “read, read”she would endlessly say. And if I had a question,“Look it up, it’s why webought the encyclopedia.” I became a voracious reader,skilled at finding answers,never stopping to think. Now, years later, I knowwhy I had to read, whyI had to look things up. What she never said, butwhat she…
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MOVING DAY
In my dream last nightI was moving a matress, queen sized,probably with box springs butit was wrapped, from my parents’ hometo my apartment, but not usinga vehicle, just pushing italong the streets, obeyingall the traffic signals, usingmy turn indicators, althoughdon’t ask why a mattress hadturn lights, just accept that it did.It was arduous work, and…
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AND PEACE?
Santayana said, “Only the deadhave seen the end of the war.”We have grown adept at wars,no longer global in scope, butubiquitous in frequency. Mine was fought in the ricepaddies of Vietnam, and on thecampus where we struggledvaliantly and vainly to protest,and when that failed, in the heatof Texas, marching about, goingthankfully nowhere, shippedto Niagara Falls…
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WE ARE SORRY, BUT
I will take it,the aging poet saidto the ever more sparsecrowd at the weeklyopen mic,as a recognitionis the growthin the qualityof my writingthat I continuebeing rejectedbut now by amuch higherquality ofliterary journals.
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EMPTY PLATES
The old gods have takenup residence is small casitason the edge of SaguaroNational Park outside Tucson. It isn’t Olympus, but theproperty taxes had becomeunsustainable with so fewbothering to offer tributes. They have gotten overtheir jealousy of the newgods living in the valley,with their European villas, yachts and getaways,for the old gods know wellhow it will…
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an old writer and his words 