"The way to do is to be."
~Lao Tzu
What do you hear?
There's some sort of ruckus taking place outside. I could go investigate, but the mystery of it is far more interesting than anything that could possibly be taking place on Autumn Street. My stomach is growling, due to the fact that I haven't put anything in it this morning other than nicotine and caffeine. It's pissed. Severely and rightfully pissed. The kind of pissed that they claim "God" was when he decided that the mass populace need a good ol' smiting. Perhaps I should mosey on down to the kitchen for a hearty bowl of Frankenberry..
For once, Yorrick isn't making some sort of awful sound. Most of the time, he sounds as if he's about to expire. That reminds me- I need to use that turkey downstairs before it goes bad.
There goes my stomach again.
What do you see?
Don King is standing beside Superman and there's a giant skeleton of a seal bearing down on them while a Stormtrroper sits idly by. A manatee is sitting behind a microphone, and they're both lounging on top of a Ninja that has an electronic blue light shining out of the bottom of it's silver face. There are various articles of mail strewn about the room, which reminds me of a melted version of Marjory, the great trash heap from Fraggle Rock. All of this is contained within four red walls that are covered in madmen, sharks, zombies and tied together by a wooden floor that looks like you could probably fall through it, given the perfect timing.
How did you get here?
I come and go as I please. My brain sends electrical impulses to the muscles in my legs, which glide me swiftly over almost any terrain. Occasionally, I slip and fall.
Public transportation makes some people uncomfortable, but not me. I've come to realize that someone with headphones and the right music could probably take over the world, given enough time and quarters. Not that I use public transportation, mind you. I'm guilty of doing my own part to poison the atmosphere and promote the use of fossil fuels. I take killing the planet I reside on very seriously.
But what's really happening?
In some form or another, I'm delaying the inevitable. As a smoker, I realize that each breath that I take is just one inhalation away from oblivion. I waste a lot of money and energy procuring something that benefits me in no conceivable way, yet it remains the central focus of almost anything that I do.
Somewhere in this house, there's a sandwich with my name on it. It's probably lonely; wondering when I'm going to come along and give it's existence some sort of meaning. I plan to. I really do. I just haven't found a reason to stop my fingers from dancing across the smooth black of these keys just yet.
Okey-dokey, time for a test!
ReplyDeleteWhich of these four items, if you had to choose one as a stand-alone piece of writing, would be the keeper?
You tell me your opinion, and I'll tell you mine.
There's a veritable cornucopia of things that I could do with the "what do you see?" category. Then again, there are lots of things that I could do with the "what's really going on?" section, as well. In fact, you'll probably get better writing out of me in the latter.
ReplyDeleteNah ha, you misunderstood me--I didn't mean which of the prompts works best theoretically for you. I meant which of the four items that you actually did write do you think works best?
ReplyDeleteI think that "what do you hear?" works best at what it was asked. All of them are complete nonfiction and all of them were answered to the best of my functioning ability at the time. However, the "what do you hear," is the most easily understood by the casual reader and is more clear about exactly what is it asked. I would have almost said "what's really going on," but in a lot of ways, I was holding something back. I say that not only because I know that I was holding something back, but it is blatantly obvious after a few reads that I was in fact holding something back.
ReplyDeleteI'd say that playfulness is the theme here (and I say thank god for that). Of the four, the one that seems to me the most playful, the slightest (and that's a compliment when the goal is to keep it light), the most discursive (also a compliment), and the one radiating the most ease is...the last one.
ReplyDeleteAt least it was in my top 50%. That counts for something. Right?
ReplyDelete