he worked his way over to the bar
through milling people square concretetopped immoveable tables and tall backed
stools
the tables and seats never made any
sense to him unless they were there to peel
off or cull crowdsforce the overspill outside onto the bricked patios at its
front and side which overlooked a keen
treelined creek or were to force people into
the beer garden behind the bar the razorwire
serpentined atop its tall walls were meant as a joke and since the bar allowed dogs it wasnt odd to
see an occasional Doberman or Shepherd which clarified its panache electrified
its ambiance nothing like a sudden sharpsnarl
to help you gulp your beer No worries, man,
he doesnt bite me.
he didnt expected the crowd
he stopped for a beer
and to catch the end of the game
he liked that the bar kept the large
flatscreen mutedplayed music over it rather than favoured the inane yak of
announcers he didnt
need to be told what he was seeing
he was surprised when he entered
that several of the stools at the bar were vacant a string of four seated on the stool beside the wall which
began the empty string was a disheveled patron who loosely held his etched
glass stein it was a gimmick from when
the bar opened years ago people paid a
tidy sum each month to retain one the
steins hung from hooksthree deep above the bar evidently one enjoyed a certain notoriety by having a monogrammed
stein but either he didnt like his
initials enough or hed be shamed that he couldnt keep up with the spendythrift
alchiesthe regulars who had one
he took the third stool from the
wall leaving an empty one between him and the inebriated man who he thought was
mumbling to himself later he realised he was talking to someone via Bluetooth mike and earbuds
it had been more fun to think he was
talking to himself
the barmaid approached him Whats your name kiddo
Bailey.
Bailey Im Joe May I have the black double IPA please
You betcha, coming up, Joe.
Thank you
The world’s evil, man, it’s going to hell in a handbasket.
overhearing disheveled he couldnt
help but wonder why they werent more original
Evil, man, the world’s evil. It’s
going to hell in a handbasket.
Hey, man! The world’s evil, it’s
going to hell! I’m talking to you!
disheveled wasnt even looking at
him You talkin to me
Yeah, man, I’m talking to you.
since when were conversations
concluded with no goodbyes no Talk with ya later
Bailey set the pint down on a
coaster
Thank you Bailey he said as he handed
her a card to keep his tab open
she smiled quicklykept her upper
body tilted from the hips towards himaffecting a casualthough terribly effective
subtle display of cleavage like smooth peeled
hardboiled eggs tough to top young supported breasts
I’m talking to you, man.
Actually youre interrupting me he
said as he admired Baileys ass as she walked away hence was the audacious weight of unvarnisheduncut
heterosexual eyes Yah Interrupting me Whawereya saying
he finally looked at him or as best he could as his eyes rolled drunkenly
in his head I’m talking to you.
You were saying
The world’s evil, man. Evil.
Based on what
Whaddaya mean?
Evil What are you basing its evilness on I ask because I dont believe in evil Nothing or no one is evil
Whaddaya fuckin talkin about? The
world’s evil!
Whats your basis
Awman.
They cut that guy’s head off. I watched it online.
Lots of heads were cut off and
posted onlineyou watched them all
Naw. That first guy.
The contractor Berg
Yeah. Him.
Why did you watch that
My friends, all my friends, they
watched it.
So they watched it and you had to
watch it
They watched it, man.
So because they did you did Idiot
It was horrible.
You didnt have to watch it to
know it was horrible
I can’t forget it.
Twothousand four almost fifteen
years ago Whadja expect If you have the slightest imagination you
could imagine how horrible that video would be
The
horror the horror the horror Apocalypse Now Brandons
Kurtz Horror has a face You must make a friend of horror Horror and moral terror are your friends If they are not then they are enemies to be
feared The tangled pile of amputated
armsthe arms of village children who were inoculated The men who cut them off had familieshad
children They did it to define the
extreme they were willing to go Japanese
Kamikaze pilots Horror creates psychological
fear
Those soldiersif you would who beheaded Nick Berg were forced into war
due to our hubris our belligerence our mockable exceptionalism When you fight American force as the
Vietnamese did it is an asymmetrical war The
mujahideen took what the CIA taught them when they fought the Soviets and
turned it on us They deployed their IEDs
suicide bombers They didnt have to
attend the School of the Americas which
should have been an embarrassment to this country
Their horror is our due is our blowback
No fuckin brainer
And that you let your friends
force you into watching something horrid some friends But youre the
fucking idiot
You don’t know
me he snarled
No I dont So you keep to your beersyour misery Leave me alone
he didnt expect the crowd
he didnt expect that
1818, Sunday,
20 1. 19
1440, Day-between-Two-Ts, 23 1.
19
Hubris
Rachel Maddow https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5FaMbnINwc
