Excerpts From Nonexistent Books

I always felt that
J and Q
X and Z
Must be lonely
Anxious and a little sad
Looking forward brightly
To the rare occasions
When they are used
The razzmatazz, the jejune
The xerox, the equivoque
Each sparking a tiny joy
Before the long sleep returns

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Prepare a pan greased with anonymity
Set the oven to a case of deliberately mistaken identity
Add 2 tablespoons youthful indiscretion
Add 1 bottle rum (to taste)
Crack 1 egg
Simmer on low heat for 280 days
Let cool for 2600 weeks
Add 1 buccal DNA collector
Upload results, and serve
Feeds 1-2

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Whistling through boughs
Pines dancing upright
Storm front drawing close
For a gusty, howling night

Toothed gears interlock
As shining key turns
The springs, like a clock
Set to run, set to purr

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A thousand people crowd this land
Beneath edifices proud and grand
But though they dwell there row by row
The land contains not a single soul
Where am I?

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The pyramids were as old to the Romans
As the Romans are to us now
A Nintendo Wii is older now
Than the SNES was when the Wii debuted
Even as my little slice of time grows
With the passing days of my life
It seems to shrink

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Over ten years hence now I plumbed the depths
An oceanography of two motes entangled, dancing
I think I now see the trajectories clearly
One, up and out, a gravitational boost, escape
First in mind, then in spirit, then in body
One, drifting slowly aground, drawn downward
Looking for a place to land, add to Earth’s mass
Destined never to land, to settle in formation
Unable to soar together, for different reasons
Bound only briefly by circumstance, by time

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Unprecedented, they called it, freshman year, as we watched rising smoke with rapt intensity
Unprecedented, the word on everyone’s lips, the squeal of brakes on money gone mad
Unprecedented, and an upset to boot, they said again, as if dictating into a history book
Unprecedented, chained to the house while the world struggles to breathe
Unprecedented, both in number and scope, people spilling out in the streets
Unprecedented, that any of it could have been predicted if cooler heads had prevailed

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Grass, fresh-cut, by the neighbors
Birdsong sweet in the ear
Showers of seeds at the feeder
Sheltering boughs are near

A sky both warm and friendly
Birds on the wing flutter by
Flowers abuzz with activity
Light dapples as sunset is nigh

I watch it all from my window
Setting sun and ebbing of light
Feelings asleep are enkindled
As the new crops of spring arise

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To say we were impressed would be an understatement
It was a resume for the ages
Years of experience in a relevant field
A local, able to start immediately
Testimonials? Glowing, every one
Able to crunch vast fields of data
In a single Excel sheet
If we hadn’t seen them for ourselves
Their easy confidence palpable
Even over Zoom
We wouldn’t have believed it possible
We politely thanked the others
Rejection letters sent out
This mythical person was set to onboard
Until they sheepishly admitted
They’d been interviewing elsewhere
The whole time
And we were their second choice

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We humans like binaries
Black hat, white hat
Sinner or saint
It’s tough to process
That someone can be both
Oppressor
And
Oppressed
Victim
And
Victimizer
Deserving of justice
Dealt in judgment
But also of justice
Restorative

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