On Holiday

'Without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible.'
~ Frank Zappa

White Petals on Black Snow

Michael Malak

Across the city, in a circle of extravagantly warm light; behind impenetrable black curtains; behind the inevitable night; they dance a paradoxical Charleston, all jitterbug hype and light speed abandon in the face of the abysmal divide between those within and those without.
Now, as before, the manner in which the city’s inhabitants face the world is determined not by virtue, but by the weight of financial influence.
This is the hall of true survivors; the bearers of currency beyond money itself. And who will question such power when wielded in a world where the currency traded is life itself. Not just the life of the individual but the lives of everyone and everything; not just Murder Inc but the Department of Global Catastrophe.

Monument to Stupidity

William Mortensen

With non-spill cups from the caffeine breast
Phone-thumbing oblivious along with all the rest
Of a devolving species running the inhuman race
That brought us to here in the first fucking place

Multiple Choice is Easy

Trust

[Extracted from the files of Mark Time P.I.]

It is important to know where you stand in relation to others. There are many who define their place in the world by what they perceive as status; specifically the kind of status that can only be bought.
“I don’t know who else I can turn to, Mr. Time” her gaze was directed at the damp patch in the ceiling above my head, as if it were another lens through which she could see me more clearly, “My husband has developed a taste for the wrong kind of people.”
“How do you mean, wrong?”
“I’m not afraid to offend people, Mr Time, if one associates with those who are not on the same step financially, one leaves oneself open to all sorts of moral dilemma.”
“Not least the morality of trust, Mrs Derivative” I said as I mentally added another two zeros to the end of her bill.

First Principles

Boneyard

Willy Ronis

Confined to the head and vain under glass, I wish I could trust that my armour would last; hold up against the onslaught of days where each piece of knowledge is a chip or a fall from somebody’s definition of grace.

Keep a cool head they all say, keep your heart off your sleeve - but the trumpets that blow aren’t mine (I can’t blow ‘em) filled as I am with resentful self-doubt perverse and purgatorial – keep your cards to your chest and your eyes on the prize, keep your own council in the kingdom of lies.

Confined to the headland, beacon windows, frosted glass, the reef bares its teeth to unsuspecting hull while the keeper of light causes the coastline to cast its good eye to the night and wonders what the tide will cast up on morning’s return.

Tread Water

I might swim to a country beyond the imagination
If I had the inclination
But I don’t so I won’t
Since the imagination
Will always remain a more palatable destination

The Chairman

Patti

And I won’t wag this tailless dog
That named itself boredom
As a child who pulls the legs off frogs
And finds no room to store them
In the box that’s labelled ‘Acceptable’

After Berryman, via Iggy Pop

The 4th of Ju...

10.0∞ Dedication

Last Pages ~ François Schuiten

This amorality tale is dedicated to those of us who can admit to the fact that we are the proverbial ‘Office Worker’; to those of us who still care to notice the world around us and have not given in to the corporate ladder to nowhere; for those of us who, while admitting to being office workers, still hang onto the concept of being a worker.

I am rewarded/renumerated with the feeling that comes with discovering a voice that is, I believe, entirely my own.

Thanks to all those who have stuck with it and left their comments
P.I. July 2011

9.2 First Day Fears

Shitty Life

“Name?”
“erm… Atom”
“Let me see… here it is… Adam Earham? You’ll be starting with Mr Geogh in the Green Department. You’ll like Mr Gough, he’s a blue sky thinker.”
Inside, the traffic silenced by double gazed edifice, The Green Department hummed its own self importance. Adam followed his escort down the grey aisle and though he felt as if all eyes were upon him, he passed unnoticed and was shown to a cubicle whose partitions had been pared down in order to give the impression of inclusive privacy. He was introduced to the team, names he tried hard to hang onto and was happy to see that his suit was of equal quality to theirs.
This boy will go far.