revised already?

yeah, because that's how we roll around here.

anywho... did some cutting/pasting/rewriting and here's a new version of the just completed section that i posted yesterday or the day before... whenever it was.



bobby’s best friend switches channels like blinking,
looks for himself in crowds, wishes he could find
the remote control for his life so he could skip to a scene
with some action, or sex, or maybe stop the damn thing
and trade it in for another movie about fire.

he stares at an image of a girl on television so hard
a village in the Congo, like this one minus the jeans,
bursts into flame.

he sees his reflection on the screen
settling like an unseen visitor across her lips,
practices the perfect smile: one part hope,
two parts desire and a pocketful of indifference,
then washes the taste of ash from his mouth
and decides this vague longing can’t be love
because it doesn’t hurt enough.

in progress, muchly (part 2)

er, actually, i think it'll be part three if the piece ever decides it wants to be finished... but here's another section from the poem i've been slaving over the past month or so... still working on it, so suggestions are always welcome. hint, hint (read: fix this poem for me, please).



bobby’s best friend stares at an image
of a girl on a billboard so hard
a village in the Congo,
like this one minus the jeans,
bursts into flame.

picking at the remains of last night’s sushi,
he practices the perfect stare: one part hope,
two parts need and a pocketful of indifference,
then washes the taste of ash from his mouth
and decides this vague longing can’t be love
because it doesn’t hurt enough.

he switches channels like blinking,
looks for himself in crowds, wishes
he could find the fast forward for his life
so he could skip to a scene with some action,
or a little sex or maybe just end the damn thing
so he can trade it in for another movie about fire.

research

just an fyi for anybody who's been really bored and kept up with the goings on in this part of the universe. still planning on that book type thing. just been busy doing research on the time period and other related subjects. the more research i've done, the more i've discovered that i needed to do, but i have seen a light at the end of the tunnel.

i'm hoping it's not a train.

meanstwhile, back to reading. there are some really interesting threads i've been able to pull together, but i still have a few questions that i haven't been able to answer yet (like villains... how many are too many? how dark should they be? how light should the 'heroes' of a piece be.... shouldn't we spend more time in the gray areas in between?).

so, yeah. just a heads up in case you were holding your breath.

go ahead and exhale for now.