The Admiral (Strikes a Pose)

Photographer: You're going to look beyond me and beyond the camera. You are the strongest and most magnificent creature on god's green earth.

The Admiral: I ate a plantain and got drunk in the rain.

Photographer: Exactly! Left elbow out and hand on hip. No, no. Point the thumb toward the bum. Fingers in front! You have fantastic fingers that I'm sure have crushed more than a few windpipes.

The Admiral: There's stain on my pain. Stain on pain!

Photographer: Let's get one more of you with the fish. Lift the aquarium with one hand...like a waiter in an expensive restaurant!

The Admiral: Will I be seen in Magazene?

Photographer: Of course! Perfect. Hold the aquarium so you're face to face with the trout. Use your thoughts to seduce the fish. Seduce the fish, The Admiral!

The Admiral: This female trout has crossed a line. To seduce this fish would not be fine!

Photographer: Oh, how you've grown. You can resist a fish. You know how to say no to a female trout. You will be on the cover of Magazene!

The Admiral: This moral stance gives me pain in pants.

To be continued...

Known Warning

Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center August 2032

The noisy and ever-present water trucks were feeding their tubes through the corridors of the maternity ward

Bloated women in obvious delirium were ejecting the hatchling trout from their birth canals

On the tiled hospital floor was a six-inch deep pool of lake water to catch the newborn fish

The northern wall of the maternity ward drained into a tanker truck

Other trucks waited in line to load up and get on with the delivery

By noon on Wednesday the western U.S. river and lake system would become the communication hub

A connectivity to the Origon in Libya would be established

And the future would become a simple crease in the map

A doorway through which the laws of physics and thoughts

Would be fair play for jealous trout on the Internet

Looking to steal some sentience from the unprotected

Coumadin

I take Coumadin

I live a life of sin

I wish I had more stamina

I'm going to build a camera

I'm going to build a camera

That takes snapshots of my thoughts

The photographs will be black and white

Just like my thoughts

I'll place this camera in my pillow

To catalogue my dreams

I'll thread together the images

Then iron flat the seams

I also take fluoxetine

Without it I'd be dead or mean

I wish I had more stamina

I'm going to build a camera

The Initiative Initiative

Marvin Sparkes was the team leader and he was not wearing his scuba gear
The conference was at the Sumptuous Towers International Ho/Motel in Downtown Los Angeles
The room sat 250 people and 18 non-people
Pastry table: Intact
Orange juice dispensers: Full
Weak-ass coffee jugs: Who the fuck cares?
Napkins: Seemingly wax-coated squares incapable of drying a single teardrop...plenty of these shits
LCD Projectors improperly configured: All

We were VIP, so we were told to ignore the registration table
Once we finished with our steam-table gourmet breakfast (with the ketchup bowl)
We were sent to the conference
The registration table workers were unaware of our VIP status
And asked us to sign in

Though we felt violated, we signed in
The conference room held scads of people
Who had missed out on the ketchup bowl
So we signed in, knowing we didn't really have to
Nevertheless, we persevered

The Admiral took the podium and began speaking
After an uncomfortable 30 seconds
The microphone was switched on

His message was clear:

Find that trout!

Divine Cruelty (potentially stupid yet possibly insightful)

Cruelty is divine

It is a shared experience

With actors and audience

Switching roles willingly

From the outside

One can argue, successfully

That unbalanced power dynamics

Ensure that the roles are set in stone

And that the victims are unwitting and helpless

While the aggressors are, well, cruel

This is why compromise is impossible

This is why there can be no real treatment

For those cast (by others or selves) as cruel

Once we take away the complexity

Of gains and losses

Of the importance of roles

Of bias and ignorance

We have defeated any chance

Of facing the detestable comfort of cruelty

All the while dooming ourselves to the divinity

Held within

The Corner Store

We met the Admiral at the corner store
He wanted more
The Admiral wanted more
The radio crackled
And the electricity
It made me sore
And the Admiral demanded more
My buddy held out
And was shot through the head
What kind of friend gets shot through the head?
The kind of friend the Admiral wants dead
At the corner store