Tuesday, September 26, 2023

Overheard at Table 2: Anomaly 11 The Little Village and the Candymen

Anomaly 11

Once upon a time there was a little village and it was a happy little village and the harvest came in every year and the generations grew and replaced the other generations and for a long time everyone was happy.

Then one year the candymen came to town and they had beautifully colored candy and it tasted so good and the children all loved the candy and they wanted more candy.  Their parents warned them against eating too much of the candy, because too much candy is not good for you, they said, and the children cried out "You're MEAN!  We won't listen to you!" and the children all left the village with the candymen and went off and the parents did not know where they had gone.

Then one day the children came back home when they were grown and the parents did not recognize their children because the children had themselves become candymen and they told the parents, "All the candy has made our stomachs hurt, and we are not happy, because the candy has never filled our bellies.  You should have warned us about the candy."

"We did warn you about the candy," the parents said.  "You didn't listen."

"Shut up!" the children who had grown to be candymen said.  "You are old now and we are still young, and so we are taking all the harvest and we are going to eat all the harvest and you can go live in the barns and we will take the houses and live there and invite other candymen to join us"

And so the aging parents were shoved into the barns, who died there when the winter came, along with the animals, who were untended by the children who had become candymen.

Then Spring came and there was no planting, then Summer, and then Autumn, and there was no harvest, and the children who had become candymen died in the houses, with the windows open and the curtains billowing sadly in the light breeze.





Monday, September 25, 2023

Overheard at Table 3: Three Poems for Arboles de Fuego

 2023-0924

To dream of
the shore, the black sand,
the birds in the palm trees
behind you,
as you gaze outward
to the Pacific:
the ocean blue
melds with the sky
and their marriage
renders each
indistinguishable



2023-0924

The motion of bodies
in line
waiting for COVID tests
in Sonsonate that
day outside the
streets parked with
cars and packed
with people,
the smell of
diesel and pupusas
and beer flooded
the air and the
paint peeled back
from 18th century walls,
and the electrical cables
above the buildings were
like a tangulated web of
synapsed wires,
like a
coal-streaked brain
that had seen
too many
summertimes


2023-0924

She said she needs a quick weekend away
to rest before her foot operation
And so, I booked a house in Texas Hills,
She said, “Thanks … but I need El Salvador”

Flowers can be transplanted to new soil,
But each petal will always yearn for home.


#iamvicpentameter



Sunday, September 24, 2023

Overheard at Table 3: Parable of the Good Seed

Are we wheat or weed?
Are we bad or good seed?
How can we really tell
who is or is not bound for Hell?

CizaƱa

Mateo 13:24-30

with the explanation in Matthew  13:36-43



 

Monday, August 28, 2023

Overheard at Table 2: Alpha Males on my Instagram

My wife keeps sending me videos on IG of Tristan Tate talking about looking good in suits, along with some other guy talking about how getting into shape make people think you are wearing an expensive suit when you might just be in a white button-down short.  These guys are all so roided-out and beefed up and strutting around beaches with women looking on in dripping admiration ... it's actually kinda weird.

- I think she might be telling you to hit the gym.

Yeah, that and she's suddenly on this "Alpha Male" kick.  She wants me to be an "Alpha Male"

- That's what the Tate brothers are selling.

Exactly, so I told her, "These guys have been arrested in Romania for sex trafficking.  What they are selling is Toxic Masculinity Bullshit.  You want me to be an Alpha Male?  OK, fine.  Don't ever send me shit from those fucking shitbags ever again!  How's THAT for 'Alpha Male'?





Saturday, August 19, 2023

Overheard at Booth 1: Maui Fight

Wife had been watching a short TikTok Video about the Maui fires and a person was saying that a bunch of investors were swooping in to try to buy land.  the natives do not want to sell their ancestral land to investors who want to build resorts on this prime property.

My wife showed me the video and said, "They're saying that these investors used a laser beam to start the fire."

This particular TikTok video did not make that assumption.  The man in the video was ONLY talking about the vultures trying to swoop in and take advantage of a tragedy before the people could even mourn their loss.

I agreed with my wife that it was definitely a possibility that the fire may have intentionally been set.  I said, "Developers have set fires intentionally before, it's possible they did this time too."  Then I added, "Even if it wasn't intentional..."

"See!  That's why we fight!  In your little brain, you want to say 'even IF!' ... you NEVER believe me.  There is no 'even if' !  It WAS intentional.  Developers set the fire, but you never take my side and you never believe me and you always make fun of me and this is why we can't talk about anything any more, and I don't want to fight because we're supposed to be going out on a date today, but you always seem to want to just dismiss everything I say and we can't agree on anything, we can't even agree on where to go to church, and you're supposed to be the head of this family and you can't even do that!  Now, leave me alone because I want to use the bathroom and I don't want to say anything that I really shouldn't!"
 

 

 




Wednesday, August 16, 2023

Overheard at Table 3: On Jordan Peterson ... <= ew!

 

Damn that Jordan Peterson!  He's an arrogant prick, but he's the arrogant prick that I wanted to be if I wanted to be an arrogant prick.

Oh honey, you already ARE an arrogant prick.  Just not a famous one.

 

Monday, August 14, 2023

Overheard at Table 1: Holidays

Columbus day is coming up in October and that pisses people off because they want to call it Indigenous People's Day and some people have a similar problem with Thanksgiving because white people in the past did bad stuff to Native Americans ...

and Christians are hating on Halloween because it's Satanic and the non-believers hate Christ in Christmas and they say stupid shit like "God raped Mary" and then people are mad at Mother's Day because they had shitty mothers and the same thing for Father's day because they had abusive or molesting dads ...

and people who want to be single or who don't have a romantic partner absolutely DESPISE Valentine's Day and Republicans sure as hell hate Labor Day and peaceniks don't like Veterans Day and people who say the American empire trampled over the rights of Central Americans really hate Memorial Day

and that's the same reason why people are all like OH WELL INDEPENDENCE DAY sucks because that's Americans enshrining the SLAVE TRADE ...

you know what?  Let's just cancel ALL HOLIDAYS!

All of them.  GONE!

GoodBYE.

No more holidays, for no one.  Ever.

You're welcome.  A few fewer things for some segment or other to bitch about.

Buncha whiners!