"Hallmark Card in Two Parts"

"One"
For days I was in a dark place. These come. They also leave as my dear friend Elizabeth Rothman said to me. Today it did.
Today again I can see good shining in everyone, and all things.
The eternal haloed all around us.
Shadows come then go. 
We learn from them as they leave.

"Two"
I understand the Descartes mechanics of this.
I live w/cyclic depressions. ...this round has ended.
Everything is the same as before it'll be the same when it comes back.
Though now I  am in the brightness of it's leaving.
I glow within this. I prefer the glow. The light is real. Always was always will be. No matter if I can see it or not.

"Quiet December"

"Quiet December"

If I were Emperor I'd ban all Holiday expressions,...'all' of them. With grim attention paid to any religious fanatics or commercialists that so much as said peep about it.

I would decree, "Quiet December".

This to mourn, and honor all persecuted, and murdered by religions everywhere in the world through all human history.

"Dream"

"Dream"

I had a very vivid dream when I was a boy about a monastery, and sky-blue robed monks. There were newly built pagodas sitting in pastel green fields. I could smell the fresh cut wood they were made from. I remember running up the new wooden stairs with other boys.

Monastery lads decked in simple robes the color of the afternoon sky.

Gardens of crystals, and dark blue mountains in the distance. 

...Music. 
A kind I'd never heard before. Played by instruments I didn't recognize.

I felt that someday I would find this place. This was where I was supposed to be.

The dream was calling me home.

"...alive"

"...alive"

It seems to me we can never give up longing and wishing while we are thoroughly alive. There are certain things we feel to be beautiful and good, and we must hunger after them.

—	George Eliot, The Mill on the Floss

"Bob the Bunny Goes on a Date"

Our heroes about to go out on da the town. Bob the Bunny what with his fortune from selling an app that makes you want to eat more pizza. Has a load of swanky pads all over town. However he's still the same guy he was when he rented that rabbit hutch in my back yard. ...just more stuck up nasty, and Republican.


Bob the Bunny, and his sweetheart Dubteppia Frankenstein,...yeah 'that' Frankenstein. Seems the gal is the Great Great Great Grand Daughter of the world famous undead deranged scary guy, and "civil servant".

Frankenstein taught high school for a few years out west somewhere. Physical Ed., and Algebra I hear. He was also a bus driver in Cincinnati back in the 70's sometime.

So with his school, and transit pensions along with the residuals from the movies, and the merchandizing of his image. Plus the off the books pay offs from the Army,...eh he was a "Secret Weapon" for the OSS against them Nazi Bastards.

With all that stuff, and the full medical from the V.A. he's one secure undead monster.)

Anyhow our heroes up there really hit it off with each other. 

This with they're having so much in common. They were both manufactured as opposed to being hatched or born. Both Liberal Green Democrats. Vegetarians, "Doctor Who Fans", and they're both Shamanic Buddhist Catholics.

(Turns out most cartoon characters trade marked dolls, and fictional animals are members of this faith. ...well okay some of the more out there puppets, and cartoon folks are Cannibal Vampire Methodist,...reformed.)

Also as Bob sez, "...not having genitals seriously simplifies matters."

Bob 'n "Dubbie" at his Roxy Heights flat. They're just back from the abortive attempt to bring back Criminal NYC urban developer Robert Moses at a scared Voodoo Séance. The evil fucker torn down Penn Station, and tried to built freeways all through the city.

The idea for the Séance put forward by our Mayor "what's his name" is to get that bastard back here so he can finally pay for all his crimes. It would be the trial of the century!

Again being built as opposed to all that messy flesh, and bones jazz is a neat break for our pals. None of that demented need to deal with gender orientation, and the compulsive need to fuck ya brains out 24/7, 365.
Sez Dubteppia, "...If we ever wants kids we can just sew a few together like my Grandpa was."

Our pals are freed from the nutty "Bleep till you Drop World" so they can pay more attention to the more important things like Backgammon making pipe bombs, and writing bad plays.


Well sure drinking heavily, and driving fast cars comes into the picture regularly.

Dubteppia has a 1936 hand made sky blue Bugatti. Her Grandpa bought it from Mary Pickford with the dough from his first monster movie. Anyway Bob, and "Dubbie" can often be seen speeding around mid-town in the middle of the night.


(That mystery car that rammed the front window of Tiffany's at 3:am Christmas Eve last year, well,...ahem.)

Don't get me wrong our swell couple are nice folks. 

Bob, and Dubbie going out to take a nice spin 'round the park in their hand-made 1936 Bugatti! The couple true Neo-Libs with hearts of Platinum always invite the homeless students, and broke comic book artists for rides w/them.

They spend most of their time at home Bob working on his plays, and Dubteppia banging away on her latest effort. Something called the "Undead Cook Book".

Well yeah okay they have they're little vices. 
Bob the Bunny does a bit of Peyote,...um for religious reasons, and "Dubbie" has a touch of crank now 'n then for her writers block. 

"It does da trick!" sez our sweetie.


When they're not stoned out of their minds meditating at the Shamanic Temple of Dark Matter or driving backwards on the sidewalk at 80mph. If not that they're home watching bootleg "Doctor Who" episodes like everyone else.

"Another day in the Life"

Snow. I awoke to news of a mid-fall snow on the way to our Emerald City. Beware branches. The last time we had an early storm it brought these down. What with many trees still heavy with leaves. The added snow won't help.

Planetary Climate Change doesn't mean it's 90f, and humid everyday,...just mostly.

I had to stumble over to Social Services to have my benefits card done over. Seems the spell wore off, and the Wizards downtown had to sprinkle faerie dust on it or something. It works now. Going over there is like going to a combination of the dentist, and a nasty job interview.

Being a Senior is hard work.

However I'm in good company as many working families, and near half of our armed forces use them cards now. This because wages have been stagnated for over 40 years. Sooner or later that has to be fixed or there's going to be long lines going up to Mr. Guillotine's handy invention. No the French aristocracy didn't see it coming either.

Bleep'em it's my dough. They yanked plenty out of every paycheck I ever earned over the last 42 years. It was insurance for when I would need it. Despite what Fox News sez about it being a charity,...I can't stand them guys. ...but I digress.

On my way back I stopped at the supermarket for the basics. 

There I noticed a now common sight. An elder asking shoppers for coins or food. There's no ambiguity here. No fit young men hanging around semi-threatening for hand outs. This was the real deal. It's personal could be the rest of us in five more years maybe.

She was a sweet heart. 

A retired house cleaner with no pension. I asked what she'd like,...pretty much what I did. Basics. I asked if she minded a wait,...she was cool.  Btw who does that music that seems to come from under the broccoli, and cornflakes in them places.

She was there when I came out I shared some stuff with her. We chatted. Cabbages, and kings.

She said she was sorry to ask. I said I recently had to ask friends as well so we're all together in this. We blessed each other, and went our ways.

Another day in the life.

"...mercurial"

A short "Star Trek" tale. 
It concerns the fate of the Federation vessel USS Pequod. The back story of the ship, and crew I leave to your imaginations. We join them as they enter the Augustine System on the Federation/Breen border.

The ship, and crew of the USS Pequod were caught in a temporal slip. There they stayed for 200,000 years. ...give or take.
Outside the Slip the ages raised, and lowered seas, and rearraigned the stars. Through all this the crew lived the same four minutes.
The same, and the same, and the same.

'Till they didn't.

Like Angels time slips are mercurial. Coming, and going as they please. 
The Augustine Event lifted leaving the Pequod facing, "...new worlds, and new civilizations".

Ages later their descendants met a species that knew them. Knew them, and had plans for them. For these were the authors of the Augustinian Event. These people called themselves,...

"The Q". 

Deleted scenes.

The U.S.S. Pequod.

In the Pequod's galley Boson's Mate Ivy reached for her coffee. 200,000 years later she drank it.

In the corridor of deck three Crewman Rodrigo waited for the lift. 200,000 years later it finally arrived.

On the bridge Helmswoman Keong felt a hint of turbulence. 200,000 years later she also noticed all the stars were in the wrong places.

228 years after that,...

Her great grand kid's,...kid's kid's kid met the "Q".