He just stood there and let it hit him

I am cleaning out my closets and generally throwing stuff away. Today I came across a ton of brilliant and largely unpublished manuscripts I’d written during the last decades. Here’s one from 1988:

Twenty-two novels by Miguel


I
“He just stood there and let it hit him.”
-July 5, 19–
(Lake Titicaca)

II
“Your legs moved in your sleep, like you were chasing a rabbit in a dream.”
“Did I get it?”
-April 10, 19–
(Borneo)

III
“I was just thinking…”
“Yeah?”
“What if she opens it up?”
“Mmm.”
“I mean, what if she looks inside?”
“…”
-Feb. 6, 19–
(West Berlin)

IV
“Her name, her name…”
-May 11, 19–
(Cody)

V
“Living next door to genius – living right next door to it… is the solution…”
-Oct. 30, 19–
(Palo Alto)

VI
“O! You have been bad little children!”
Aug. 4, 19–
(Eisschicht)

VII
“That smell, o! It reminds me… it reminds me…”
-Sept. 11, 19–
(Mannefiore)

VIII
“The spork is an eating utensil which combines the properties of the spoon with those of the fork.”
-Oct. 29, 19–

IX
“I haven’t the S-L-I-G-H-T-E-S-T.”
-Dec. 26, 19–
(Redding)

X
“She told me it was a beauty mark.”
-Jan. 2, 19–
(Brasilia)

XI
“They had beliefs… but… they were not our beliefs…”
-March 11, 19–
(Mexico City)

XII
“Let’s get a few things straight.”
-Nov. 4, 19–
(Hilo)

XIII
“They got together and went into those hills up there, with machetes.”
-July 9, 19–
(Wailea)

XIV
“The AIDS virus is an icosahedron – a twenty-sided solid figure with seventy-two antenna-like projections…”
-Oct. 29, 19–
(Tokyo)

XV
“You can owe me for it.”
-July 5, 19–
(Katmandu)

XVI
“And when you sit her back up, her eyes open again.”
-July 7, 19–
(Naxos)

XVII
“Those little lines in your lips, that go up and down like that, like this, that gets me, it really gets me.”
-July 15, 19–
(Monaco)

XVIII
“Just one, right here, on the cheek.”
-Aug. 5, 19–
(Nice)

XIX
“I promised I wouldn’t tell anybody.”
-April-May, 19–
(Tuscon)

XX
“Of course I hate them, I must hate them.”
-Aug. 5, 19–
(Monaco)
and
-April 17, 19–
Vienna International Centre

XXI
“If I had it to do over again, next time I would yield to the semi, even though I had right-of-way.”
-June 10, 19–
(Bellingham)

XXII
“Her hands… her hands, though, gave her away.”
-Feb. 28, 19–
(Ivory Coast)

New shoes

New shoes at the Shoe Project.
Thanks, Juul and Lessie& Lamar.

Things I miss as a ghost

How my fingers smelled like lavender
three hours after crushing a twig.
Getting body-slammed by my daughter,
the only way she currently shows
affection.
Sounds, even my ringing ears.
The feel of water.
There are things you expect to miss.
But I even miss the misery of puking
my guts out, the cold relief of the porcelain
against my clammy forehead; or my
back threatening to go out if I make one
false move. The smell of diesel exhaust.
The smell of farts! Mosquito bites.
Arguments, thorns. Drills.
How much better than nothing it all was.

Be careful what you hate…

…because you might become it.

For example, I hate clowns.

Note to Netscape users

I just looked at this site in Netscape 4.7 and all I can say is, “holy smokes”.

If you’re a Netscape user, you’re reading this from work, right? Because no one would use Netscape on purpose, would they, if they had a choice?

The Internet can be an ugly place, all right.

Zona Nuda II: Naked Blogger Project

zona.gif

After much urging by various correspondents and readers, I have decided to test the waters for this project. As regular readers know, positive body-image is a top priority at Feral Living. And since blogging is all about exposing oneself, metaphorically, what better way to boost traffic build community than with a naked blogger project?

Some people, though, may prefer to stop at baring their souls. So I am asking this, for those of you who are interested in such a project to send me frontal nude photos of yourself in digital form (jpegs, please, and nothing pornographic) which I will then, if I get enough, convert to a uniform size and post on the Internet! in the form of a Zona Nuda Naked Blogger Project!

Please include the URL of your blog with your photo, and make the photo as high-quality as possible.

Just look, the project already has an attractive banner! (Although the final version will of course be in the form of an animated gif file.) Send me those pictures now!

My email for this project: miguel@rhzine.com