haiku 22 January 2019

Rest in peace, Martin.
Your gifts are under threat by

Some on your killers

[ americanifesto / 場黑麥 / jpr / urbanartopia / whorphan ]

laughter just one

She’d bring hope in segments - one scrap at a time - then sit back to watch her good work there unwind. At first it was laughter just one or two bits that soon led to everyone balled up in fits. Second she sent fuzzies to warm and delight that did seem to linger most all through the night. Third it was deep restfulness during which she’d tend to each and every hurt thirst want and need. Her labors completed she would hurry back to perch in her high-mountain chilling-time shack and wait there for the crack of next morning’s dawn when back down amongst us she’ll hurry and come.

© JPR / whorphan / americanifesto / 場黑麥

Grigovian fairy-tales 1

Davoyend of Grissend was a naughty boy. He'd show up late for school; he'd eat only bread and sweets, refusing all vegetables; and he'd steal his younger siblings' presents on the feast of old King Vuolvesst the Merciful, on the night of the winter solstice, when it was customary to exchange gifts.

'Happy Fest of Vuolvesst,' said Therr, Davoyend's younger brother, hoping for a kind word in return. The older son, however, as he was wont to do, reared back and punched the boy in the eye-socket, pushed him down the hill next to their house, and ran inside to raid his meager stash of loose liquorice sticks and peppermint bonbons wrapped in paper.
'Look at me, I am the greatest,' Davoyend yelled as his brother struggled through deep and swirling banks of snow. With brown and sugary juices staining his chin, the older child made as if to push his brother back down the hill. Therr tricked him, however, by feinting left but going right. Rushing through the gathering night back to the house, the young boy pulled the door closed behind him and ran to the fire, to warm up.
'You rush in here caked in snow,' said Ulentha, their mother, shaking her head at the wet footprints staining the rough, wooden planks. Her scolding completed, she resumed chopping vegetables for the mutton stew, a meal customary eaten on the Fest of Vuolvesst. 'Where is your brother?' she asked.
Therr, shivering violently as powdery snows turned to water and ran down the back of his shirt, tried to answer with words, but could only manage a croaking sound.
'Perhaps he went to atone for his sins at the shrine of the mountain spirit,' said Ulentha, bending to the dishes, their clatter keeping her from hearing Davoyend pounding weakly at the back door.

The next morning, the village watchman in the course of his rounds found Davoyend leaning against the wall of his parent's home, frozen stiff, his face stained with sugary juices, his mouth, for once, empty of venomous vituperation.

***

One evening, while following a faint animal path toward his home, woodsman Heiryath Bordendt tripped over a piece of string. The string had been strung across the path and attached to some bells: they chimed softly. From the surrounding bushes came suddenly a couple of men running, bows armed with arrows, hollow eyes flashing in gaunt faces. Finding a man instead of a deer sprawled on the ground at their feet, they decided to rob him.

Heiryath, however, was clever, and quick. As soon as he realized that the men meant him harm, he spun into a fighting crouch with his hunting knife and ax extended in front of him. Blinded by hunger and greed, the men charged. Heiryath knocked each man unconscious with the blunt side of his ax, but instead of causing them injury, he left them with the last of his food and a note telling the local green grocer to feed them and send to the woodsman the bill.

mentiri factorem fecit © 場黑麥

docile raccoons for sale

Looking for that perfect birthday present for your sister's preschooler? Can't think of what to bring to your cousin's wedding? Agonizing over how to bring a smile to your spouse's face? If so, we at Ray B.'s Once-Wild Animal Sanctuaries have just the thing for you! Look no farther than through the steel-wire-mesh fence at our newest batch of docile, panting, oh-so-cuddly raccoons! Each frothy-mouthed beast comes with a pair of thick leather gloves to make handling and petting a safe and fun-filled breeze!

Watch with wonder as these normally-wild animals toddle over and all but lay down at your feet, begging for you to bring your thin-skinned fingers close enough to their mouths for them to bite you. Those little rascals! Their confused and often aggressive antics are sure to light up any stuffy office party, and their sweat-slick pelts all but beg to be washed, combed, and prettied up with lacy, red bows. Have a 'coon-combing party! Dare your friends to pull shiny coins from their pulsating, swollen throats! It's so much fun, we double-dog-dare you to do it.

Dear friends, loyal customers, do not delay further! So come on down to Ray B.'s for a furry little wonder of your own, today. (We also sell docile opossums, befuddled flying squirrels, toddling tree-squirrels, and addled baby deer, all of which come with a pair of thick, Kevlar-lined leather handling-gloves and the telephone number for your nearest infectious-disease clinic.)

場黑麥 mentiri manufactorem fecit

on May-Day 2012

Awaken, slumbering masses of the world, and unite as one! Today is our day, and this year is our year. Let us read the Communist Manifesto, and the Declaration of Independence, gaining from their few pages such common purpose as to unite us all. Let us fight, side by side, to secure the rights that we liberated and emancipated persons deserve equally. Let us combat corruption, avarice, sloth, and pride – first in our own lives, then in our families, communities, societies, and nations. Let us foster a spirit of cooperation, a zeal for self-sacrifice, a yearning for self-sufficiency, and a love for all things living and inert – first in our own lives, then in our families, communities, societies, and nations.

Together, friends, together we can beat back the rising tide of hatred and discontent that still threatens to swamp our hearts with fear; together, we can rid the world of the pettiness of conspicuous consumption, of the cruelty of wage-slavery, and of the fallacy of unchecked environmental degradation; together, we can truly make of many, one, of all the different peoples of this earth One People sharing equally – with full stomachs, clothed backs, and bright and shining smiles – of her lush and abundant gifts. So, on this perfect, sunny Spring day, let us fill our hearts with joy, basking in the glow of our growing righteous fury.

Mahalo.

場黑麥 mentiri factorem fecit