Enough about me. Let's talk more about you. What do you think of me?

I answered one of these questionnaires on October 23, 2010. I decided to update some of my responses. Feel free to copy/paste and insert your own answers. 

1. WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE?  My father.

2. WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU CRIED?  Yesterday. Thinking about Chooch.

3. DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING? Yes. It resembles chicken scratch and some dead language. It would take an enigma machine and a team of handwriting experts to decipher it.

4. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE LUNCH MEAT? Roast beef - rare.

5. DO YOU HAVE KIDS?  Nope. I love kids, but I fear for their future.

6. IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON, WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU?  Most assuredly not. I would fight myself like the chicken on Family Guy.

7. DO YOU USE SARCASM?  NOOOOoo I NEVER use sarcasm (sarcastically!) 

8. DO YOU STILL HAVE YOUR TONSILS?  Yes.

9. WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP? Never. I have a terrific fear of heights.

10. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CEREAL?  Admiral O's of course.

11. DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF? Nope. I tie them once and that's it. Usually I prefer Van's (no laces).

13. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ICE CREAM? Vanilla with bits of Madagascar Vanilla bean. So simple yet so complex.

14. WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE?  Whether or not they are a bullshit artist. 

15.WHAT IS  YOUR FAVORITE COLOR?  Orange. Fall colors. Child of the 70's.

16. WHAT IS YOUR LEAST FAVORlTE THING ABOUT YOURSELF? I am becoming more and more reclusive. When I am forced to be in public I usually adopt a dreadful fake personae.

17. WHO DO YOU MISS THE MOST? My Great Grandmother Naomi.

18. MOST EPIC SONG OF ALL TIME? Supper's Ready by Genesis.

19. WHAT COLOR PANTS AND SHOES ARE YOU WEARING? Black & Black.

21. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW? Phases & Stages by Willie Nelson.

22. IF YOU WERE A CRAYON, WHAT COLOR WOULD YOU BE? Hunter Green.

23. FAVORITE SMELLS?  BBQ!

24. WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE? Gina.

25. WHO IS YOUR FAVORITE ARTIST? - Ernst Ludwig Kirchner.

26. FAVORITE SPORTS TO WATCH? The Winter Olympics.

27. HAIR COLOR? Brown with a daily increasing amount of Grey.

28. EYE COLOR? Brown.

29. DO YOU WEAR CONTACTS? Glasses.

30. FAVORITE FOOD?  Pho.

31. SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDINGS?  Both. 

32. LAST MOVIE YOU WATCHED?   Ghost Story w/Fred Astaire.

33. WHAT COLOR SHIRT ARE YOU WEARING? Green Hulk sleep shirt.

34. SUMMER OR WINTER? Winter!

35.  WHO DO YOU ADMIRE? Writers, artists, and anyone who works to achieve social justice.

36. IF YOU COULD WORK IN A DIFFERENT PROFESSION WHAT WOULD IT BE?  Full time writer ...maybe organic farmer.

37. BEST MEAL YOU EVER HAD? KFC in Harrisburg, Illinois. It was snowing. I was a starving college student. They had an all you can eat buffet.

38. FAVORITE FILM AT THE MOMENT? - Stalker by Andrei Tarkovsky.

39. WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING NOW? The Court of the Red Tsar.

40. WHAT IS ON YOUR MOUSE PAD? I have a Soviet Propaganda mouse pad.

41. WHAT DID YOU WATCH ON TV LAST NIGHT?  The Tim Tracker.

42. FAVORITE SOUND(S)?  Manual Typewriter.

43. IRONED OR WRINKLED? Wrinkled.

44. BEACH OR SKIING?  I am not the most outdoors-ey kind of guy...

45. DO YOU HAVE A SPECIAL TALENT? Empathy!

46 WHERE WERE YOU BORN?  Phoenix, AZ.

47. WHAT IS THE GREATEST NOVEL EVER WRITTEN? - A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.

48. HOW DID YOU MEET YOUR SPOUSE/SIGNIFICANT OTHER? At a Barnes & Noble - She asked me to watch her purse - the rest is history!

49. FAVORITE CITY? Chicago.

Magic Soap

Magic Soap

There’s a madman

ranting

on my bottle

of soap

“All One!

All One!

All One!”

It’s magic soap

it cleans

your body

mind - spirit

and purifies

your soul

“All One! All One!

All One!”

but is a

teaspoonful

enough

to wash away

the scent of

ammonia

in a Nazi

bucket of piss?

or Zyklon-B?

or the ash

of loved ones

spewing from

Auschwitz

chimneys?

 “All One!

All One!

All One!”

say’s the blind

old man

bobbing in a pool

lather up

and forget

the tears

of children

left behind

a snapshot

of his son

held aloft

 sun drenched

sinewy

arm

the toddler

in his hand

like lady liberty

offering up

her torch

“All One!

All One!

All One!”

The Moral ABC

his magnum

opus

tinkered

with

added to

subtracted from

from 4am phone calls

dictated for hours

to secretaries

 only to be recanted

“All One!

All One!

All One!”

cement caked

hands

climbing the fence

of an Illinois asylum

 starting his enterprise

in the city of

“broad shoulders”

It’s not a half

bad legacy

a bottle of soap

wrapped in a

label of madness

it’s fair trade

the workers

and environment

are provided

for

The Moral

ABC is lucid

in places

between the lines

there is truth

miracles abound

like a million

tiny bubbles

rising up

in a bottle

of liquid soap

there’s miracles

all around

like Spanish moss

swaying in a warm

breeze

or a bird’s nest

in the crux

of a McDonald’s

arch

or a moments respite

a workers lunch

in a hospital

parking lot

miracles are everywhere

like a girl from

New York

and a boy

from Arizona

born 2,436.54 miles

away from each other

falling in love

in a Barnes & Noble

café

meeting

at just the right

moment

on a perfect afternoon

I met her at

27 years of age

I waited for her

that long

Those 27 years

Those 9,855 days

Those 236,520 hours

Those 14,191,200 minutes

Those 851,472,000 seconds

a millisecond before

and a millisecond after

and we might not have met

we made journeys

her and I

her from New York to Florida

me from Arizona to Illinois

to Florida

everything converged

that day

in that Barnes and Noble

café

and my life has

been made better

my heart’s capacity

grown larger

I’ve returned to the booth

where we met

realized a miracle

took place there

851,472,000 seconds

and it came

down to one

“All One!”

I love Dr. Bronner’s

soap

it’s minty

and refreshing

it makes me

feel clean

it helps me

to see that

although the

Nazi’s murdered

6 million Jews

6,150,000 Jews live in

the United States

with an additional 5,600,000

living in Israel

a state of their own

or that 58,209

Americans died

in Vietnam

but my father

survived

he came

home safe

and had one

child

who met one

girl in one

Barnes & Noble

at one precise

moment

and fell in love

and that is how

the world lives

it’s magic

a miracle

“All One!”

Electri-Christ-icity

Electri-Christ-icity

Indelible,

we arc across

the wavelength

intertwined

spirals

sublime

executions

like satellites

in degraded orbits

 our trajectory

our inertia

the velocity

of our becoming

diffused

& diffracted

I see the Christ

betwixt the crux

of time

his copper cross

his hands and

feet

bound by electrodes

The wraiths cling

to wires

that hang

like entrails

The form is

implied

each piece

- the hair

- the beard

stripped cords

and diodes

the crown of thorns

- a saw blade

with modules

in the subsystem

hard-wired

to the mainframe

with shiny

metallic

tchotchke

as scrollwork

welded and

taped and

glued and

bolted

until the parts

- themselves -

no longer

represent

the whole

A procession

of docents

impart their

interpretation

with laser

pointer

precision

the rust

and poorly

welded seams

are "marks of"

humanity's

imperfections

each eye

unfurls

a different

slant

until the

wordless

throat

stretches to

scream

and showers

of sparks

fall as

brilliant

minutia

across the sky

as the sun

falls to blackness

and the final

vesper resounds

The kill-switch,

pierced into

the dented

machinery

of ribs,

is alight

with blue

flame

the air is thick

with the smell

of

electricity

as insulation

melts and

drips into

pools of

multi-colored

geometry

A harlequin

works the

armature

of the jaw

(up and down)

and screams

with laughter

as the mechanism

of the mouth

opens & closes

like the jawbone

of a dying man

There is no

sounding

the depths

no flash-bang

revelation

the man -

the symbol -

is an installation

The malignancy

is a morality play

that becomes

cannon in the

hearts of a

thousand men

who would

guide the oarsman

and claim

the crown

9/13/2010

9:21 pm

Needless to say, I have had a strained relationship with the idea of religion as an institution. It is much like a controlled substance in that it is so easily abused and corrupted - especially when mixed with politics. It should never be used to manipulate or to cloak evil purposes or to divide us from one another. The idea of loving your fellow travelers and being kind and giving - you know the Humanist interpretation... I agree with. The other parts, like the ones illustrated above, I find revolting and an abomination. I lay the blame at the feet of charlatans who have through the ages used alchemy to twist words and deify themselves.