The day the Muzak died . . .
Arrangers arrange for themselves, their interests;
their imaginations don’t extend farther than the edges of the pads they make
their lists on. If others benefit . . . “Oh. Yes. Good.” If others suffer harm . . . it
was an arranger that coined the term “collateral damage.” It benefited
knife-nosed Jürgen, Molly’s local brother-in-law (See chart.*) – to get rid of
as many complications as possible as soon as possible. Two, easily dispensed
with he thought surely, were the Blazer and me.
It didn’t
occur to him – or he didn’t care; in either case, it wasn’t on the list – that the
driver of the vehicle didn’t have a driving license, only the clothes on his
back, the money remaining in the glove compartment, and Paperback Dostoevsky.
The
driving license wasn’t on my list either until I had driven about two hours and
saw the first police car I’d seen all trip. It was then I started a
list. It was of things I might need that I was missing: 1. a driving license.
I
might also need a map, if I was going to stay off major highways, which seemed
a good idea. Seemed,
because
I had no idea really what I was going to do next.
 |
| Writing on the wind with water. |
Here is what I learned in my December term at Bedlam College, where everyone’s major is Philosophy (and everyone’s minor Tautology): The future is a blank: whatever comes next is the next thing.
So: I didn’t want to go back there; and I was clear both that there must be alternatives but also that those alternatives were, as the Poet said, written on the wind with water.
I stopped for gas and lunch about halfway and
about three-quarters to pee in a field.
The end.
12.29.16
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* You can't tell the players without a scorecard:
Looking at the end of your post I sense a Hoffman sentence diagramming influence.
ReplyDeleteAh, the sainted Rosemary, a subject for "Where is she now?"
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