***these photos were just taken at random off the internet and have nothing to do with text***

And but we didn’t have papers
we had weed but not papers.
So we rolled it up into what we called ‘the funnel’
Which was just e-z wider
With enough pot for like five joints in it
Like rolled into like a cone-shaped thing.

And we bite off the end of it but you had to hold it up like this
And then the pot would burn down the middle.
So we’re out there smoking it like this and passing it around this circle
And we got busted.

We got caught.

So for punishment they made us take our sea bags
Instead of going to training
And just carry this 80-lb bag on your shoulder
Around what they call a ‘quadrangle’
Which is like uh
At graduation they had
You know that’s where you drilled to practice marching formation.
But around the edge was like a track where we ran around
And we . . .
What they did is when we you first started they made us run around
And they timed us.
Almost everybody improved because a lot of them
Were like junkies off the street and stuff
That got eating regular and sleeping regular
And all that.
Just made us more healthy I guess.

But anyway they made us march around this thing with the 80-lb thing
On our back for 24 hours nonstop.
The ones that stopped they got put back into a different company
Couple weeks behind in the training.
NO FOOD?
Oh no, we didn’t stop for anything. Day and night.
YOU MADE IT?
Yeah.
WOW.

But when I finished it was like
Uh I don’t know
Like 3 in the morning or something
So then I just went to my bed and I didn’t get undressed or anything
I just fell on the bed and then they . . .
Next thing I knew they were blowing the whistle to get out of bed
Get out in formation
5 in the morning or whatever
Time to wake up and go
It wasn’t easy.

Tags: ::ESSAYS ABOUT REAL LIFE::, ::HISTORY::, boot camp, marijuana, pot, punishment, wtf

I read an interview with Gordon Lish on BOMBLOG and some of his answers made me mull.

But the only one that I remembered enough to try and reference in conversation a few days after reading his interview is Lish’s take on what a writer tries to do with the opening sentence.

He says, “Well the opening is to get the thing opened, to overcome the inertia of silence, indifference. Whatever means convince you you have achieved this effect ordain what follows.”

He then clarifies that by silence he means “The silence that precedes the writer beginning to write,” as opposed to the silence that precedes the reader beginning to read.

A little later, Lish gets giddy when asked about the FORWARD to his new book, COLLECTED FICTIONS.

He says, “Wow, that bit, it’s nuts! What the deuce was I up to? Yet, let it not become hypertrophic in me, but I have been taken with the feeling that the preface discloses, however opaque, what’s truest of me. I produced it as fast as I could write it and concluded, queerly, I’d stand by it no matter what. Apart from its drift as reference, there’s words in there I’m not certain are to be found anywhere else.”

And I grew curious about the FORWARD. I wanted to read at least the FORWARD, if nothing else. I found it online at OR BOOKS.

And then I did a little ctrl c + ctrl v for ease of passage:

READ MORE

Tags: ::INTERVIEWS::, ::LITERATURE::, collected fictions, forward, gordon lish, or books

Dear Person:

Where should I begin? Well, for one, today I got two bar stools for ten bucks at a garage sale. So they wouldn’t tear up the carpet, I cut slits in 8 tennis balls and plugged them on 8 rusty chrome legs. I’m sitting on these walkers now, and I’m happy to be sitting on them.

I also walked into a head shop and found a flier that caught my eye because it seemed to make some kind of sense. I don’t think the writers of this flier would mind if I do a little plagiarizing.

Side:

TAX HEMP!

HEMP for MEDICINE

HEMP for the

ENVIRONMENT

Re-Legalize Hemp

If hemp were re-legalized and taxed at the same rate as pipe tobacco, over 1/2 a billion dollars could be raised annually for Texas schools. If it were taxed at the same rate as cigarettes (which pose the greatest health hazard to most Texans) over a billion dollars could be raised.

Hemp relieves the side effects or symptoms of glaucoma, AIDS, cancer, chemotherapy, migraine, muscular dystrophy, PMS, asthma, and other medical problems.

Hemp plants could replace all fossil fuel and their by-products, reducing pollution. One acre of hemp produces the same amount of paper as four acres of trees, four times a year, at 1/4 the cost of wood pulp paper and with 1/5 the pollution.

Flip Side:

WHO NEEDS A BAILOUT?

TAX HEMP

MAKE JOBS

A legally regulated hemp crop would yield billions of dollars in tax revenue.

A new hemp industry would replace thousands of jobs being lost today in the wood pulp industry and in other agricultural & industrial occupations, saving thousands of acres of U.S. forests and forests around the world.

Over 300,000 Americans a years are arrested for marijuana possession, at a cost of $840,000,000 to taxpayers.

Texas prison costs are skyrocketing because we jail nonviolent hemp offenders. Once-productive citizens become wards of the state, sometimes along with their families.

Hemp is the Number One $$ crop in California, Oregon, Washington, Hawaii, Missouri, and North Carolina and the Number Two $$ crop in Texas. Hemp has been safely used by humans for thousands of years, for fiber, fuel, food and medicine.

And there are only two sides two this flier. It’s lime green, like my 8 tennis balls, which I’m liking more every second. Oh yeah, this flier was made by the TEXAS HEMP CAMPAIGN, known in some quarters as the THC.

Tags: ::HEALTH::, austin, hemp, marijuana, re-legalize pot, thc

“My ex-wife asked me to bring her some weed. I saved until I could get her the good stuff. I paid a lot for it, which was hard for me because of gas, and I had to take time off work to make the trip to Ohio.”

You’re leaning against the balcony railing, three stories high over the swimming pool. Last night it stormed. Lightning shorted the floodlight outside your window. You were grateful for the cut. It made your room darker.

“Going through North Carolina everyone was driving 75, 80 up this one hill, and at the top of the hill the speed limit changed to 55. Everyone let off the gas, but gravity kept them moving, you know, and at the bottom of the hill there were like 15 cops just waiting to pull you over. Every other car got stopped.”

You fix the straw hat so that it sits slanted down from the crown of your head. The sun peeps from behind a hole in the cloud cover and shines your chest. You look at the tangle of hairs. Rune shaped.

“They saw my Florida plates and pulled me over. I got out of the car and they checked me for hidden knives. Then they told me that if I was honest with them they’d let me off easy, but I had to tell them if there were any drugs in the car.”

You watch a girl open the gate to the swimming pool. She’s candy wrapped in a lavender towel. She slips off her thong sandals and walks down white steps and wades towards the diving board.

“So, I told them there was some weed in a sock on the bottom of my duffel bag in the trunk. I told them I was taking it to my ex-wife in Ohio. They understood. The cops put me in handcuffs and brought out their sniffing dogs. They started barking at my bag. The cops asked if I had any other drugs in the car, any cocaine. I told them no. They wrote me a ticket for speeding down the hill and interstate transportation and let me go. It was like a couple hundred bucks, but I could pay it by mail when I got back to Miami. I didn’t have to go to court or anything.”

You sip on a glass of lukewarm water and marvel at how the girl grabs onto the diving board and pulls half her body out of the water. You see the pipes in her arms contracting.

“Then there was the time when we were living in Miami, and we got a call saying that my little brother was in the hospital in Kissimmee. He had a brain aneurysm.”

You don’t hear the gate open. You don’t see a gray brindled pit bull skyrocket into the swimming pool with a galactic splash. But when you do see, you don’t know what’s happening, and the girl is tiring from pulling half her body in and out of the water.

“My mom asked which car was the fastest. We got on the highway and I got clocked doing 102. The cop asked me what’s the deal, you were going 102. And I told him that my little brother was in bad shape. I told him about getting my mom to the hospital. And he understood. But he had to scribble out a ticket. He said if you keep on driving that fast you might never get to the hospital.”

You see her arms shaking when the pit bull reaches her side of the swimming pool. It could be hers. You look around for an owner with a leash, but the grounds are desolate.

“After he finished scribbling out his ticket, he told us to follow him five exits down the highway. He started pushing a 100 and we followed right behind him to the exit. It was a good thing because I didn’t know the way to the hospital. If you just explain what you’re doing, they’ll understand. They’re human, too.”

You watch the pit bull pawing the girl. You aren’t sure if it’s hers until she screams. You think about how much more geometrical the painting would be if blood were less dense than water, like oil. Then you nod your head, and the man standing next to you on the balcony sips on his third espresso and says

“They’re human, too. You just have to let them know why you’re doing what you’re doing.”

::photo by bridget::

Tags: ::CREATIVE WRITING::, american pit bull terrier, cocaine, cop car, marijuana, miami, Short Stories

For the millions of Americans who feel slighted by the topsy-turvy world of politics, Wall Street Reform seems like a smidgen of progress. But don’t be deceived. H.R. 4173 (The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act Bill), is filled with loopholes. It may seem as no surprise that a bill with 520 rules, 81 studies, and 93 reports just HAS to have some loopholes; Chris Dodd is well known for his ties to the banking and life insurance industry, after all.

Even though the bill has passed, most of the work is yet to be complete. Many of the eventual rules and bureaucracy will rely on interpretation, and the Washington lobbying houses of financial organizations who rely on a laissez-faire environment will spend millions of dollars on an outcome that best serves them. The main lobbying arm of the life insurance industry, The American Council of Life Insurers, is already diligently working on gaining special treatment when the laws are finally interpreted. “The nation must rely on the expertise and professionalism of the agencies to implement H.R. 4173 in a way that honors its underlying spirit of reform, but does not hamper well-functioning markets.” Said Frank Keating, the President of the ACLI.

READ MORE

Tags: ::IN THE NEWS::, ::MONEY::, aig, financial reform, goldman sachs, insurance, lobby, metlife