seven

I am a single link in a genetic heritage
I form a waypoint in a chain of morphological variance
I exist as one among a billions-strong force of change
I affect a small area that’s part of an immense surface
I stand on one member of a family of wandering bodies
I spin on the farthest fire of a cloud of fires
I am a tiny piece of a huge self
I close my eyes, and I feel the movement of the spheres

six

INT – APARTMENT – DAY

Dan and Scott are sitting at a table (Dan is reading from the paper while Scott is eating cereal) while Lisa is on the couch doing a crossword on a folded newspaper; all are silent.

LISA
Hey, what’s a three-letter word for dumb?

SCOTT
Dan.

DAN (TO SCOTT)
Oh thanks man, very funny.

DAN (TO LISA) (CONT’D)
Dim.

There’s a quiet pause while Lisa fills in the puzzle.

LISA
How about a six-letter word for barren?

SCOTT
Daniel.

DAN (TO SCOTT)
You’re a real comedian, you know that?

DAN (TO LISA) (CONT’D)
Barren is six letters.

LISA (ANNOYED)
Well then another six-letter word.

DAN (ANNOYED)
I don’t know…
(Pause)
Fallow?

Lisa thinks for a minute, considers it favourably, and writes in the solution.

LISA
Five letters; desperate.

Scott opens his mouth, but Dan speaks first, dropping his paper.

DAN
Don’t you dare say my name.  I swear if you say my name I will kill you in the most painful manner I can.

Scott looks mischievous, and is clearly conflicted.

SCOTT
Nnhh…

DAN
I’m not kidding.  I will beat you senseless, I will research terrible accidents, and I will prepare the top five for you in the worst “Countdown” of your short awful life.

SCOTT
Nnhh…

DAN
You think I’m joking?  Look at me.  Look at my face and decide if I’m joking.  Say my name and find out just how serious this face is.

SCOTT
Da-

DAN
Don’t you dare!  And don’t for a minute think the last twelve years of our friendship will give me even the slightest pause!  I’m a reasonable man but I will not hesitate to end your miserable existance.

SCOTT
Fine!

Scott angrily shoves a spoonful of cereal into his mouth.

SCOTT (CONT’D)
Jesus…

LISA
(Under her breath)
Doesn’t fit.

DAN
Thank you.

Dan goes back to reading his paper, and flips around the pages.

LISA
Five-letters.  Blank and the Dinosaur.

SCOTT
Danny!

Dan slams down his paper and shoves his chair away from the table.

DAN
That’s IT!

EXT – GRAVEYARD

Dan, in a suit, is standing in front of a headstone with his head bowed.  At the headstone’s base, a library book leans against the edge.

DAN
Look, I- I didn’t read a lot as a kid.  I’m sorry.

five

It’s been four hours since I hung up the phone, and part of me is still furious, but mostly I feel drained.  The setting sun beats outside my window and throws cold light over my desk and over my graphite-stained fingers and over the dusted paper beneath them.  I pick up my pencil, because it’s the only way I can think, and I begin scribing notes for new stories.

Premise: Three children tumble into three portals. One turns up in a world of candy. One turns up in a world of cake. One turns up in a world of ice cream.

Development: The child in Candy World rots out all his teeth. The child in Cake World develops diabetes. The child in Ice Cream World freezes to death.

Moral: Nothing can ever be fun.

Premise: A woman wishes she lived in the kind of world where wishes come true.

Development: Her wish does come true, because she already did, and she finds herself in an arabesque kingdom where genie lamps lie buried with hidden treasures.  She doesn’t know of these lamps, or indeed of an existence outside this storybook Arabia, and lives out her uneventful life in a peasant hovel raising children for a husband she cannot bring herself to love.

Moral: You probably already have what you want, and pursuing it will land you right where you started.

Premise: A prince insults a witch and, in retribution, she turns him into a swine.

Development: As a pig, the former prince lives a normal pig’s life until he is butchered and eaten.

Moral: It doesn’t matter if you’re a jerk or a faultless creature; you’re going to have a bad end.

four

Today I melted.

I became a puddle as I did, my edges spreading in an uneven ellipse like a child’s drawing of the sun.

I flattened wide, losing all stratification.  I became all surface.

I was clear and clean.  Secret-less and substance-less. Like a window.

The ground was visible through me.  The world shone off my surface, inverted.

People walked through me and took some of me with them.  They left me a little less of myself.

I felt their steps and rejoiced in the contact, touched deeply; deeper than I thought I was.

Some people paused in me, to cool or because they hadn’t noticed my presence.

The former was good and I was glad to be of help, but the latter hurt and left me keenly aware of my transparency.

When I felt like feeling, I longed to be noticed.

But when the sun shone on me and I showed people the sun, they complained and shielded their eyes.

This, too, took from me and left me smaller.

Many people passed through me, and each time I reveled in the chance to affect them, to give them some part of me to take with them.

I began to notice my size and the shrinking form of my shape.

I was less of myself.  When people touched me there was no depth.  The contact was all shallow.

Now I felt like feeling, and I wished for companionship.

I wished for someone to melt in me, to make of us both a larger puddle.

To make a child’s drawing of the sun.  To shine the world off our surface, inverted.

I felt each person passing through me, judged why we might strengthen each other.

I wanted her by her narrow sole.  I hoped for him through his strong heel.

I am precious small now.  I am very little of me.

Few people walk through me, and I rarely feel like feeling.

When I do, I hope.

Maybe the next one.

three

LIS Senryu

502.
Room full of speakers
Every one professional
And no two agree

511.
Rare librarians
Navigate analyses
Multivariate

520.
Who is this work for?
Never the right amount of
Specificity

522.
FRBR does
Not take up four syllables
It’s just two: “fur-bur”

530.
Boolean searching
Yields twenty thousand results
OR where should be AND

555.
Entice visitors
Lead them to information
Still can’t make them learn

two

Has any scene inspired more verse
Than raindrops on a windowpane?
Melancholy
Like moisture
Pervades.

one

You’ve called me Friend for many years
I’ve labeled you the same
In truth we act a moral play—
You’re Pity and I’m Shame

Our history is misbelief
A stage-prop neighborhood
From frontward vibrant liveliness
From backward: hollow wood

Thick curtains hide production sets
Familiar sights half built
Direction notes on memories
That demonstrate my guilt:

Those days you’d tell me secret hopes
Confiding in my trust?
I played my role with false pretense
And fabricated lust

Those evenings from our precious past
Spent contemplatively?
I manufactured moon-lit grief;
I made up midnight dreams

You may wish ill, I’d find no fault,
Theatrics now confessed
But hold and hear with what intent
My actions were possessed

I never sought to cause you pain
I lied to reach your heart
My falseness kept you by my side—
Prevented life apart

You see I am a puppet prop
I mimic, but don’t live
I’m only Friend or Shame with an
Existence relative

While you are real—quite capable
Of choosing who you are—
Save foreign hands and influence
I’m No-One when you’re far

Your body holds a brain and heart
Their union grants you form
Through such gifts you conquer doubt
Share pleasantness and warmth

But I am just a toy—a doll—
My body’s stuffed with clothes
I grasp with sawdust fingertips
And stand on sand-filled toes

The worst is of your precious will—
In me there’s no such thing
You’re pulled along by strength and dreams
I’m strung along on string