...I have a new series of micros, "Please Don't Eat the Fish" up at Red Fez and also here under "Words in Print."

...I sent another piece ("Scallop") to PANK yesterday. I had two others I thought would work. Anyway, fingers crossed. We'll see.

...Watched "Definitely Maybe" again last night. It's a guilty pleasure and how adorable is Isla Fisher?

...I like Jimmy Chen but I don't know if he likes me. Long ago I sent him a friend request but got nothing back, no love, not even a "take a flying leap, len." he's quite talented. this appeared in "thieves jargon," (which I also love) and is one of the most layered, generous and artful pieces of fiction I've ever read:

A Brief Autobiography in Palindromes
by Jimmy Chen

Dad

Adamson was not the son of Adams; Adam was not the son of his father; his father was not the son of his father, etc.; a surname is not a sure name; these things we know. I was 19 when I changed my name to Adam Adamson. I put two cardboard boxes full of clothes and cassette tapes into my car and drove off into the sunset like the end of a movie. The credits are still ascending toward the ceiling. As I drove off, my father stayed in the backyard picking autumn leaves out of the pool with kitchen tongs. Mother was gone.


Mom

Mother was gone.


Abba

One of the cassette tapes was ABBA, a Swedish pop music group known for their aggregate vocal harmonies, or 'wall of sound.' The band's name is an acronym derived from the first letter of each member's name: Agnetha, Benny, Björn, Anni-Frid. I regret buying ABBA deeply. Fortunately I also had some Led Zeppelin.


Solos

(Guitar) Jimmy Page; (Drums) John Bonham; (Prom) Adam Adamson.


Tit

One suspects there are probably two, that this mastectomy is merely conceptual. Albrecht Durer's rendering (c. 1507) of Eve's was unnatural and uninspired, their porcelain sheen untouchable, untouched. If art aspires to be the manifestation of life, then life is a sack of fat.


Boob

(see Tit)


Civic

A line of subcompact cars manufactured by Honda; a three-door hatchback introduced in 1972; AM/FM ratio w/ cassette tape; a rudimentary heater; a foam-cushioned plastic trim; two-speed wipers; the possibility of flight; a one-way trip to OVER THERE; the semantic disparity between 'running away' and driving; the wind through the window in my ears.


Eve

The first woman created by God in Genesis 1-2. Eve Rochester (c. 1997) is not her real name. Memory corrodes things into a 30-second hopeful commercial. The party was getting 'vodka stupid' so I went out through the back to the side yard by the lemon tree. She was far from beautiful; I had to skin her face with my mind. A skull, denied an expression, is a most earnest thing. "We could go to my place," she said. Her cheek was cadaver hued from the moon, and her breath stayed in the cold air as an apparition with nobody to scare. We graduated, moved to our respective cities, our cell phones caught in the middle, staring at us. I thought of her often, then more often, until I thought of her less.


Stats

David Macaluso is the #621,283 ranked full name in Ohio: #621,282 David Ma; #621,283 David Macaluso; #621,284 David Macaroni; David is the #5 ranked first name in Ohio; #4 Michael; #5 David; #6 William.


Noon

12:17 P.M. to be exact, when David Macaluso shot himself in the face with a Wii remote. His subsequent life as one 'Adam Adamson' was not marked differently by any new countenance or temperament. If only games were real, he might die from heat-stroke while golfing. If only this were real.


Xanax

Alprazolam, its trade name Xanax, was first synthesized by Upjohn (now Pfizer). It is covered under U.S. Patent No. 3,987,052, filed on October 29, 1969 and granted on October 19, 1976. Released in 1981, it was the first approved drug for treating anxiety disorders and anxiety associated with moderate depression. Alprazolam may be habit-forming. Alprazolam is habit-forming.


Sis

Short for 'sister,' aborted (c. 1978).


Sagas

(see "A Brief Autobiography in Palindromes" © Jimmy Chen, published by Thieves Jargon, 2009.)


Did

Past tense of do; this is what I did: nothing. I never ran away or found a girl. I never moved out of Mansfield, Ohio. I never actually killed myself. I'm 33 years old, the year my father was when he had me. I am an Analyst IV at Belloch & Blevins Insurance Co. Tonight the TV will burn blue again into the walls. Life has a way of softening and getting blurrier. This is what I didn't do: I didn't drive away from here to OVER THERE; I didn't push my father in the swimming pool; I didn't change my name to Adam Adamson; I didn't go to college and meet a girl named Eve or Anna or Elle; I didn't ever forget my mother no matter how fluid and viscous her interchangeable face became, I didn't swallow the mouthful of pills I put in my mouth and see 'the light' while lying on the bathroom floor; I didn't leave my body and go upwards or downwards.


Redder

When Adam was created, he was lonely. Being whole made him incomplete, so God took a part of him and created a woman. Having a piece of him missing somehow made him whole. For seven days everything was perfect. They even fucked monkeys. Then Eve leaved in her groin area and left in her heart. Tadpoles came out and tried to walk. Adam sat by the lake and watched the sunset as the sky grew redder and redder, soon realizing that God probably changed his mind. The flames snapped against the dome of the sky. Adam was made of wax. SO THIS IS HELL would have been a cool t-shirt, but the rule was to stay naked.