19.9.16



she texted him earlier that morning she had witnessed a tsunami in her dreams

he was encouraged she called it a dream not a nightmare

he held his tongue 

she was prescient


that evening she texted apologizing for having gone missing that afternoon
                                                           I conked out
Im absolutely spent Feels like Im carrying the weight of the world on my shoulders

he texted back and asked if she caught up with the tsunami in her dreams and surfed it


thats what he do

give a force of Nature a head start and try to catch it

it rarely worked out for him

but it kept his optimism honed

if he had a solitary thing going for him throughout his life it was some would say his abject optimism

Really in the face of all odds  they scowled

Hell in the face of all odds was the best time to be optimistic Improbable wasnt impossible Never forget

he didnt

improbably he met her

Who saw that comin(mebbe she did)



unfortunately no sooner had he texted her he saw on his muted television monitor  a pictures worth a thousand words he didnt need to listen to someone tell him what he saw  A SPECIAL REPORT  he imagined the voiceover We interrupt our regular programming  rolling titles under the film footage indicated Emergency officials declared the tsunamis seismic intensity a level XI
Devastating  

he knew the XI was against a possible XII gradients

it struck the coast of Japan where the decommissioned Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power plant is

as one did five years earlier

the seabed remains at radioactive levels hundreds of times more than it was prior to the three nuclear core meltdowns which cant be cleaned up

engineers say the tools havent been invented yet

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe recently encouraged people to repatriate the district 

his government has deemed it safe
                            maybe Abe ought to move there much like Michigan Governor Rick Synder ought to move and live in Flint where his myopic decision contaminated and destroyed the citys fresh water infrastructure – fuckin criminal


she was good

he figured hed wait a bit before texting her

maybe shed find it on her own



ANGST
it straddled his shoulders like a stone gargoyle
                                      he crossed the livingroom flipped the receiver Off
even muted Bad News still reigned




he went outside to watch the sun set

he remembered forty years earlier another sunset the same day the day he got married

a sunset filled with promise

his wife was dead

she had been dead fourteen years

when they were apart she traveled for work they tried to watch the sun set share it at a distance 

he called it their celestial bond

Youre so romantic she said Youre such a romantic despite your gruff your rough and tumble exterior I think you would have been an ascetic if you hadnt married me lived off in the mountains somewhere  Happily

Youre just a romantic at heart she chided him You must know that about yourself


fourteen years later that romantic in him had hardened


it laid too long unpractised


he watched the sun set with jaded eyes




his fone chimed

she texted I know now what the tsunami meant  My period came

Shit he laughed
              she certainly had a way of buoyanting his optimism 



1834,  Friday,  16  9. 16
1121,  Monday,  19  9. 16

18.9.16



he took an unusual afternoon beer and sat outside in the sun to assuage what seemed a relentless day on the telephone

he could almost imagine a conspiracy  the work behind the scenesIve got him Im off in five then you call 

he felt tagteamed

it was known by his family if they got him they best keep him because itd be some time again before they did

his dislike of telephones wasnt errant

he spent twelve years in a call canter mitigating trouble between his company and its customers

he called them his customers

he was a senior customer care representative and his self-fashioned job was to assure and provide his customers received exactly nothing more than what his company promised and was paid to deliver 

the company didnt have to say  if it wasnt their intent to make good on their word

he held them piously to their word

as he held his customers to theirs too


the twelve years tooks its toll

it disfigured John Donnes metaphysical “never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee”

who said thee anymore

habitchualised
            he did         



the sun felt good

having his arm down felt better

he rested the cold can on his leg after taking a long draught

bringing his head down he saw through the bare limbs of the walnut his hawk returning ahead of a cawing convoy of kamikrazed blackbirds

he hadnt seen the hawk since Spring and missed it

there was no mistaking him  he was nearly as large as an eagle

the hawk took its roost in the spire of a singular tall digger pine about a klik east of him


a klik  did he think that 

a kliks about all that remained of his military service

he went AWOL in Nam

worked his way back to the States after Fords ‘74 amnesty  quite a fuckin rigmarole  though a good ground zero to learn mitigation and wind his way through bullshit and redtape

when he tendered job applications he emphatically darkened the NO check-boxes which related to military service

he served only to beat a trumped up charge of assault and battery

you dont beat up one of the towns Founding Familys punks

the Court in its lenience offered him the opportunity to serve his country serve in the military  

offering him in one hand time outofdoors

in its other hand a stretch inside prison

he thought Christ I havent even been tried  a jury yet unassembled


evidently it had


discretion is the better part of valour   


in-country he realised the criminality of the War


the US military wanted to return to the Stone Age a people who had known nothing but conflict and war since the Japanese invaded Vichy French Indochina in’40

he wasnt taught that in school

the small town Fourth of July parades and celebrations he was a part of as a boy and teenager didnt inform him of Americas blind faith its vigorous vulgar Imperial overreach

Hell  in-country he learned of USs B52s secret bombing of Cambodia and Laos  

Subtle coercion huh

flipping the scenario he wondered how Americans would respond if their country was invaded and bombed

Right
    Damn right  by hook or by crook theyd kill off invaders one at a time with anything at their disposal




an airplane droned overhead

looking up taking a sip of beer it looked like a high-flying white crucifix

the best he knew Christ couldnt fly

He was no Superman




Aahh  always nice to be outofdoors




1404,  Friday,  16  9. 16
1112,  Sunday – Paws boithday,  18  9. 16
John Donne  “No man is an Iland, intire of it selfe; every man is a peece of the Continent, a part of the maine; if a Clod bee washed away by the Sea, Europe is the lesse, as well as if a Promontorie were, as well as if a Mannor of thy friends or of thine owne were; any mans death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankinde; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee.”