‘Cuttings’ Archives
Haiku
three yellow maple leaves in a large brown bowl — red apple's lingering scent Passion Contents
City Canyons
No matter how closely I press against the window, I can’t see the street below. An enormous skyscraper blocks my view. Nor can I see the sky. All the buildings rise so high, spread so wide, that I can see only the other windows opposite, perhaps ten stories up and ten stories down. On the other three sides it’s the same, the same view of [...]
A rank of clouds
A rank of clouds serried and clothespinned up which like a flock shocked by a sudden pop scatter in a swivet break up. Passion Contents
Instances of Falling
A man in Wichita, Kansas, fell from a 9-story apartment building. He fell over 90 feet, his body hurtling down at a rate of 9.81 miles per second. The papers said it was an accident. But none of them, not even the people standing on the street, noticed the man on the roof. They did not see him peering over the edge; they did not see the [...]
Before Sleep
Before sleep words titter totter under the bed, deep six in the recess. Passion Contents
Young Love
Arlan and Diana met at Freshman Orientation. She fantasized running her fingers through his thick, curly hair. He ogled her tight, round ass. By the end of their first week of classes, they shared breakfast at the Union every morning and dinner in the evening. A few weeks later, he mentioned that his roommate had dropped out, [...]
Jumping Rope in Fitler Square
One girl holds her end of the rope in both hands. Another holds the rope between her stuffed rabbit's paws, pressed tightly against her chest. Together, they lift and shake the ends of the rope. It twiches and leaps with arbitrary abandon. The rabbit's ears flop. A third girl, the eldest of the three, stands next to the epileptic rope and hops up [...]
Cicadas
It was the new neighbors that made me plug my ears. They did it with crow’s caws and popgun bangs; with doors and cupboards; with heedless laughter that woke me but not my wife, and left me envious in the dark. Once awake, I’d roll back old stones and peer at the grubs and worms of memory and conscience. The hours spent hunting sadness [...]
A Small, Green Piece of Paper
Six Degrees of Separation is a play and film written by John Guare about the conjecture that all people are linked by five intermediaries. Six Degrees of Separation is standard theatre fare. Most people have seen it once but probably don’ t go out of their way to see it twice. I recall the play introduced me to Kandinsky's paintings. One [...]
Outer Lands – 1915
John said so, even before we built our home in the Outer Lands neighborhood by the ocean — there would be nothing but wind. It gusted so hard, and often, the effect was comical at first. We'd laugh at the extremity we faced, so that I loved to say the word "wind." Sometimes I'd sing it, whisper it, my breath blowing on my sister's new [...]
