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

Navy Shooter (The Killer Gettin' Iller)

I got a gun and a grudge
And I like spicy fudge
Because Thai food is nice
And I can handle the spice
I pray to their gods
Play games with their mods
I live in their houses
And I slide in their spouses
I am the Navy Shooter
And represent my agenda
I am locked and I'm loaded
And I ain't no pretender
I might be involved in a contracting agency
But I still consider myself
To be a part of the Navy
My disorder is crucial
In that I cannot be neutral
They prescribed me some Abilify
But with each five milligrams I wanted to die
I knew I was free when I no longer felt fear
And when a man dies inside the decision is clear
You rack up a count like in a video game
And when you're in my place you'll do exactly the same 

Lake Cachuma: Artificial Lake

Even though it was quite wet
And fish would swim and shake
Shake is just the word I choose
Because it rhymes with lake
Fake lake fish shake
Pray the lord my soul to take
My sister has an Easy Bake™
My father takes me to this lake

[A fashion designer begins staining the more wooden letters, leaving the "alphabete-plastique" to the latex paint]

Fish in dresses on the runway
Theodore Nugent lives the gunway
Just like hot dogs choose the bunway
Our fishing trip is on a Sunday

My father shows me how to sharpen a filet knife
While he tells me he knows I've been stealing his silver quarters
I deny everything
And he somehow lets it go
He pulls the long thin blade across the oiled sharpening stone
After four pulls on each side
He wipes the blade dry with a handkerchief

My brother's hashish still courses through my 12-year old body
And the song "Stranglehold" keeps me focused
There is a physical canyon between us
That can be seen from the Dragon Lady photos

False Positive

The clinical failure rate was impressive

Joshua tabulated the results

And waited for the next batch of results

These data coincided with the previous data

A knock at the lab door was unusual

But he stepped away from the bench to answer the door

The well-dressed men showed him pictures of his family

They knew of all his crushes and pursuits of women with similar interests

To his

He explained to them about data integrity

And the need for unbiased analysis of all things worthy of study

They cut his throat and held his body still

Until he had stopped jerking about

Like a stupid puppet

Dancing "The Ghouta"

Al Tayyib was the first to examine the full-diameter core sample
He noted that the drying time had been minimal
Based on the principle that for something to require drying
Wetness would need to be an initial factor
His report would not be welcomed by his superiors
Who were either frightened or wise enough
To only deliver good news to the governate

But as Al Tayyib radioed his findings
A familiar whistling sound
And a not-so-distant staccato bass line of medium ordnance
Filled the lab with new sounds
He was suddenly compelled to dance
There were several successive strikes
Not direct hits to the science building
But close enough to shatter the windows
And cause the walls and floors to buck and buckle
To remain standing, he pivoted his hips
And rotated his upper body
Both achieving balance
And looking good while doing it

Al Tayyib had found his groove and needed to share his new moves
He took his dance out of the building and out to the street
Where he was now being being out-danced by children and old women
His hip-pivot was nothing compared to their full-body mega-twitch
One of the DJs was going nuts with the fog machine
And the whole 'hood was joining the party!