Distance

Cottonwood leaves. Cottonwood bark. Steel benches dipped in plastic to seal away rust. Enjoy Heineken responsibly dot com. The thrum of a tugboat. I like that word: thrum. Someone is smoking upwind of me. The tug pushes steel steel steel coal and steel. A tiny spider looking for God knows what on the back of my ring finger. I look into the inside of the blue shell afternoon sky and still I see stars. Afternoon. After hours. In the universe of my creation there will be more stars than space. More hours. More leaf than tree. Or simply less space. In the universe of my creation I can sit here and touch the hazy limestone bluffs across and down the river. I can read the crags and escarpments like braille. I can walk to work in seven steps. On the back of my neck I can feel the air displaced by the migrating ducks overhead. I can heel-to-toe onto the steelbarge with a tiny baby step. In the universe of my creation I can drive three hundred miles in ten minutes.

© Copyright 2008 JD Robinson

River Sun

I am lost without a sunset.
No way west.

I am afraid without your voice
in my ear.

I am black and gray and sand brown,
never green,

never blue, and I am cold here
standing still.

© Copyright 2008 JD Robinson

Palms

Doodle Relaxation Tool

Written in Actionscript 3.0 in Flex Builder.

Church of God

Melon Shed

Hey, how's it going?

Don't you hate this conversation:

"Hey!"
"Hey!"
"How's it going?"
"Good. How's it going with you?"
"Fine. See you later."

Except for the "Hey" part, it's all just crap, right? Neither party really wants to know the answer to the question posed, and neither answer is honest. Well, maybe once in ten times it's honest, but it's usually automatic and crap.

Haven't you always wanted, instead of the socially-acceptable "Fine," to say instead: "Shitty. It's going shitty. This is the shittiest day I've had in weeks. I guess I should be glad you're at least pretending to care, but honestly? that just makes it worse."

I don't think it's just me. I don't think it's just because this was a really crappy day. Therefore, I officially form the Coalition for Honesty in Everyday Small Talk (CHEST). The two requirements for membership are:

• a solemn pledge that if you ask about someone's well-being, you actually want to know the truth, and are prepared to offer assistance if it is warranted, and
  
• you must answer truthfully even to non-CHEST members in order to promote the cause.

Benefits of membership are manifold: advancement of honesty in interpersonal communication, admiration of your peers for being so candid and forthcoming, and maybe possibly having a potential of perhaps on an off chance finding something real out about a fellow human being. And of course, the most important benefit: being able to say "Yes, I'm a big CHEST supporter."

Who's with me?

Oh, I almost forgot one other requirement:

• never ever utter the phrase "Is it [hot, cold, wet, windy] enough for you?"

(Well, "Is it wet enough for you?" is in fact acceptable under certain specific circumstances, but that's a topic for another day...)