personal literary writing literature poetry short stories essays

lv personal literary writing literature poetry short stories essays

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Reflections at night when the dark is good and we see farther. A short meditation.
"A silent conjunction between what one thinks and what has been thought."

Brief Tales on a Whim.
There is nothing more pitiful than the storyteller without his stories.

Meditations on the 60th Anniversary of Hiroshima What would the end of the world entail? Do we boast that we can imagine such a thing?

3 short stories. $3

In the apprenticeship period hopes are high.
"But then, who will save us from our own crimes?"

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AH CHILDHOOD

His cousin, Richard, was great with maps. He could look at one and memorize it and know it when it came to the actual, physical place the map depicted. So they decided to go to San Fransisco. They would take the bus over and then come back with his uncle who worked in the financial district for a government agency. Off they went.

The Bay Bridge was always a prelude to entrance to the city. The towers and cables, the sound of the road, the variety of cars, trucks, and drivers with them, as it were, for a fleeting moment in their great drive across the water. Then through the dark tunnel and dark noise muffled by the shape of the tunnel back into the bright light and, there, the buildings! Buildings that said, "there are things that live here you can not imagine."

The weight of the city settled on him. Anonymous buildings with sqatting windows and old, classic doors. He was confident his cousin knew where was going and trusted him. He had his map in his hand. No one looked at them. "How can people live this way," he kept thinking to himself.

"Let's go this way!" And he followed his cousin's down, across and then a sharp right turn.

It was a city of noise and smell. The incessant car traffic and muni busses, streetcars, and trucks made for rumbling, whoosing sounds that poured through him without resistance. It did not smell foul, it did not smell pure. It smelled fearful and a bit deranged, unexpected. So now they were in the city using the map master to find their way to the cable cars. They hopped on and headed for Fisherman's Wharf. He felt the cold breeze and it felt free to him, as though he were on a platform gliding on a cloud up and down the noisy streets. He watched the streets pass, the strange looking buildings abutting against each other, views of the Bay, he caught a woman in a large window at the top of an odd house, looking down at the cable car. He watched her for a long time before the car went over another hill and they were almost to the bottom.

The water of the Bay was not pretty. It came against the fishing fleet in their berths and swayed them. Old, rickety boats with names like "Red Snapper" and "Gulpy". Walking along he spotted a restaurant called DiMaggio's. "The ballplayer?" He thought. He wanted to go to the restaurant and see if the famous guy was there. But they passed quickly and went to a trinket shop where there was a wall of key chains that held no interest for him.

Eventually they caught another cable car and went back downtown by way of Chinatown. Such strange letters!" He thought. And he picked up a newspaper from the ground and marvelled at the strange language covering the newspaper. They found themselves in a clearing and he had a sense of panic. He didn't know where he was. The people and buildings were from another world, another planet even and they walked down to Market Street where there was a commotion.

As they approached the crowd they could see camera's and people standing around in front of a hotel. The two boys squeezed through and watched as someone yelled, "action!" and a man in a suit came out of the hotel in a hurry and started walking up Market Street. Then the scene was stopped and repeated. The boys tried to position themselves to get into the scene but they were kept away by a Burns Guard. He found out the name of the film was The Days of Wine and Roses so he waited until it came out and went to the movie to see if he and his cousin could be seen in the background. No, and the scene lasted a few seconds and was inconsequential.

He thought all day and night about the movie he'd seen being made.

The day began to darken and they walked down to the financial section and went to his uncle's building. He had a nice, glass office and introduced the boys around the office then they took off for home.

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