The formatting on this is going to look really strange--especially if you're using Chimped Out. If you're
using Chimped Out or just want to see what it would look like on a printed page, I'll add a read-only attachment to the bottom. ^_^
___
(a word from our sponsors)
When we were not whole
were we then peaceful?
___
(genshibakudan)
Hiroshima, 1945
___
twenty seconds ‘til.
she was standing at the sink with the radio on, even though it was broken. it was broken like the chairs and the windows and the mirror and the heater and the sewing machine and the icebox
ten seconds ‘til.
and the automobile engine and the bicycle wheels and the hinges and the front door and the doorbell and the picture frames and the stove and the roof and the chimney and her daughter’s legs.
five seconds ‘til.
it was broken like what lay beneath her breastbone.
it occurred to her that she ought to fix something, but
impact.
then the sky split in two and crumbled into dark winter.
___
(alice in wonderland)
Santee Sioux Reservation, 2004
___
It was a parched summer—so dry that the ground cracked in craters and crevasses, scribbling nonsense between tufts of grass. Alice’s grandmother sat on the sofa licking her split lip and watching the television through static. She couldn’t hear it—she hadn’t heard a sound in forty years—but it was fixation, fixation on something other than want, that she thirsted for.
Alice lay on her back. Her dress clung to her sweaty skin and she shifted until she could feel movement in the air from the fan that sat, propped up, in a corner of the trailer. Outside, the wind blew, and piece of brittle prairie grass split themselves in half and wafted east like arrows in flight.
A match was lit, but neither of them could hear it.
___
(king darius’ children)
Abadan, 1978
___
There is a KNOCK at the DOOR.
MASSOUD: [sobbing] I’m so, so sorry.
BEHNAZ, THE MAID: [kissing his cheeks] What is it, Massoud? Massoud? Don’t cry, Massoud, please--
MASSOUD: The cinema is burnt.
BEHNAZ, THE MAID: What?
MASSOUD: The cinema—it’s gone. The Shah’s men locked the doors and burned it to the ground. Blocked the street with their guns and their knives and--
BEHNAZ, THE MAID: Kian? Parsa?
MASSOUD: Ash and bone.
BEHNAZ, THE MAID: Allah have mercy.
MASSOUD: How will you tell her?
BEHNAZ, THE MAID: I don’t know.
MASSOUD: Allah have mercy.
- FADE OUT –
___
(chesapeake)
nowhere, now
The pills were stones in his stomach, hard and round, grinding up whatever substance lay between those pink walls. He had the windows rolled down though it was snowing, and white flakes bit at his fingers as he turned onto country roads, carrying his little car farther and farther from the city.
Where are you going?
To Chesapeake.
It didn’t exist—it had never existed—but that didn’t seem to bother the foot pressed to the pedal. It didn’t matter to the hands frozen around the steering wheel or the windshield wipers that neglected to push the snowdrifts to the side. All he did was drive.
It felt apt.
___
(the promised land)
Jerusalem, 1947
___
They landed as pilgrims eight hundred miles
north of Mecca— not as refugees, but as children
of God. A homecoming...................................................met with bitter words and pistols drawn. ..................................................................................This land was never yours.
The deed was ancient and crumpled in places,
but everyone knew the words. Everyone carried them
on their lips and in their hearts, even when
..............................................................what sat in their ribs was blackened and wicked. .......................................................................................It was an invasion, an invasion of strangers,
...................................................and there was nothing they could do to stem its flow but
to raise arms, and to raise Hell.
___
(catch me if you can)
Mobile, 1933
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They was shovin’ him around a bit ‘cause he was a nigger who don’t know his place. Gingerbread Man, they called him, on account of how his skin was tainted red what with the blood they brought up with they knives. You cain’t catch me, he said, and go runnin’ down the road as fast as he can.
But it’s always black folks who get strung up, anyhow, and they snapped his neck and strung him up on a tree. Guess he looked a bit like Jesus, hangin’ there with his arms spread wide.
Gingerbread Man, maybe, ‘cept half-ate.
___
(premier[e])
Pyŏngyang, 1994
___
Dear leader, why have you forsaken us?
You have left us with your books—your knowledge, your wisdom—but our children are starving, dear leader. They’ve grown thin and their limbs are weak and cold, except for when fevers wrack their bodies and send them crawling toward the border.
The mountain-swallow who brought us your son has been caged. The enemies threaten from the south, from the ocean, from the Great Satan—and we have no god but you, dear leader. We have always loved you.
Why have you left us?
