(this and other Eureka Springs trip images by Melanie Pruit)

   "The Journal of Inadequate Braking Distance"

fatigue of the emotion
desuetude
of the pre-Apocalypse
esperantizing
my deaccession
can it matter so much to them
that i don't get through
the mild light
the phantomnation towers


"Moved by impulse, perhaps, I spoke to him in a low voice, using the Turkish language.
A dull animation came into his misty eyes. 'Allahou Ekber,' he muttered, in a trembling voice; 'it is sweet to hear your words, my son.'
   'Mussulman,' I said, 'who are you who recite the Tekbir here under the spires of a Roman church?'
   'Is there harm in bearing witness to the glory of God here under the minarets of your cathedral?' he asked humbly.
   'Spire and minaret are one to Him,' I said. 'Who are you, Mussulman?'
   'My name is Khassar,' he said; 'my nation Eighur; my Iort is the Issig-Kul; Baïon-Aoul my clan. I am an Eighur Turk, a Khodja; and I am able to write the Turkish language in Arabic and in Eighur-Mongol characters.' " --Robert W Chambers, The Tree of Heaven (1907)


Tim Seibles on Youtube (reading my favorite poem of his).


"Vigilance is necessary, but revenge is another thing altogether." --Stephen Billias, The American Book of the Dead (1987)