there are recipes for writing as
there are recipes for cooking baking pickling drying
ingredients too
the ingredients for writing however
arent as readily available as it is to run down and fetch from the grocers
he walked to the grocers a canvas
bag over his shoulder
and
often while walking he came upon odd ingredients he would have had to been
blind to miss and incorporate them into pieces
no measuring spoons glass
Anchor Hocking measuring cups no pots and pans or sieves no greased and floured
baking tins or glassware stoneware
he did get an interesting recipe
last evening Vita & Virginia Virginia Woolf Mrs Dalloway
The Lighthouse Orlando Vita was the muse for Orlando
“. . you must let the eye lick it all
up
all that deliciousness
and then the brain will settle
itself down
and watch things happening
without troubling itself to
think”
marvelous
not that it told him what to
do but rather that it confirmed what he
taught himself
a potbellied toad squatted on its
haunches in the crotch of twinned trees
Once upon a time they were triplets the toad was carved from the stump of the third
clever
it became less clever when it belched
as he walked past
kneejerk
reaction he answeredattended belches as
he answeredattended sneezes Gawd bless
you
the toad couldnt thank him it lacked an articulating tongue jaws teeth
voicebox and any modicum of human language
English were it to speak to him
rather it assumed his
benevolence and nodded its thanks
before he could catch himself he politely
nodded in kind
Man toads made of wood
he excused a wooden
toad
if he were a lesser manan
insecure man he might have looked around to see if anyone overheard him
being who he was
he couldnt give
a fuck
he almost waited for the toad to
bust into DeNiros Taxi Driver bit Ya talkin
to me Ya talkin to me Im the only one here Ya talkin to me
but frankly the sapling didnt look
old enough to have been seededsprouted to have overheard the speech
bitch to have roots
he didnt picked
his up years ago an hadnt put them down just never found a place he wanted to commit to wanted to call Home
yaknow Home
Sweet Home
so he intruded on his folks
Yamind if I keep my attachment to Home with youse
they were tickled
when they were fixing to sell his childhood
hometheir home they asked him if that would
be alright
that was mighty nice of em
Thank you but no thank you Its your house You do whacha like
they sold it
the new owner tore it down
a onehundredten year old house
bulldozed brick foundation true roughcut 2X4s 2X6s bigger bearingbeams
and posts slat and plaster walls white oak baseboard and trim stained glass and other decorative leadglass
windows
it was down a couple of weeks before
family said his folks never said he
hadnt gone back to the old neighbourhood since
twenty years later at the
thought of it his next thought was to firebomb
the structure that replaced the house he grew up in
he stepped back didnt turn around just threw it in reverse
Ya
okay toad
it nodded
couldntve known what he asked maybe surmised by the tone of his voice his concerned expression
sometimes communication didnt
need wordsthe same language
he and a stumped tree apparently didn’t
someone was deliberate and exquisite with their knife or knives
had the stump been left taller a crown
on the toads head wouldnt have been inappropriate
despite its humourous
posture there was a regalness to its
expression asif it was caught breaking wind kings fart everyone farts
yes even beautiful women fart
however
in light of his experiences it wasnt wise
to say
he couldnt help himself
he was a truthteller
and not only was he willing to
tell the truth
he didnt suppress a fart
if one ached for freedom
Excuse me
Excuse you? That was rude.
Nahnope That was fuckin human
he couldnt sayhow many farts
stood between him and a beautiful relationship fuckya he was being melodramatic
if a fart stood in the way of a relationship it wasnt a relationship to be hadBAM
he was surprised how many guys
thought otherwise I’d’ve given my left
nuts to spend my life with her Yafuck it wouldve cost ya more
than your nut he didnt get these guys they were full of shit
they didnt think they were not to have a woman like that on their arm
hell with his arm he wanted a woman under himover himbehind herflipped
around sixtynine under on top inside hell with his arm
Toad Names Joe
Hope yer belly settles down
it blinked one bulbous eye
then the other
imagine a piece of wood and him speaking the same
language
Have a fine day Ill be seein ya again
the quickest of nods
or the
sunlight fluttered a diffuse cloud casting an abrupt shadow
3216,
Sunday, 7 2. 21
2307, Monday,
8 2. 21
