Michael Brown's Blog – March 2010 Archive (13)

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A Walk Along the Beach

Added by Michael Brown on March 28, 2010 at 9:00am — 11 Comments

One More Factoid in the Life of Lit

“Look at this edging,” Lit said, “doesn’t the crenellation on this plate seem delicate and rich at the same time, fine and yet with a certain power?” At the moment of passing the said object, the earth, his earth, trembled, and the plate was dropped, and it shattered. Of course, the other was made to blame, but had not to worry because though it was an heirloom, Lit would absorb the loss. He was the first in his family to accomplish many things, making him also the most expansively forgiving of… Continue

Added by Michael Brown on March 27, 2010 at 1:50pm — 5 Comments

The Boy in the Photo

There’s a grayed out black and white photograph under glass in a simple frame on the back of the bureau behind a pile of crumpled sweaters and over-sized blouses, empty cologne bottles, and various artifacts of facial make-up. It was a day at the beach, but it looks as if it might have been too cool for swimming, and had this been taken in color, the participants’ paleness might belie the setting, which appears to be Coney Island not in the proximity of the boardwalk, nor the shoreline. Many… Continue

Added by Michael Brown on March 25, 2010 at 10:00am — 6 Comments

Grazing

I had just asked her, “What’s happening lately with your cousin Andrea?” as Sandra, sitting alone on a three-cushion sofa, crossed her legs and dangled her hand to just below her kneecap, lightly grazing the upper part of her shin. Andrea/Sandra—it made little difference to me, but it may have been a big deal to her. I pretended to think she might have been trying to seduce me or secretly pleasuring herself, but deep down I knew the grazing was her assessment of my misstep and due to an inner… Continue

Added by Michael Brown on March 24, 2010 at 8:00pm — 5 Comments

The Elusive Pieces

Analise was a brilliant jigsaw puzzle that Seth solved perhaps forty times or more in their twenty some odd years together, but at every conclusion a necessarily four-colored piece was missing, and it was never the same piece, which vexed him thoroughly. Seth was a Times of London cryptogram-crossword, the clues to which, for the most part, Analise could easily decipher, except for the four-letter answer that always seemed integral to completing the matrix. They had met late in life, decided to… Continue

Added by Michael Brown on March 23, 2010 at 10:30am — 4 Comments

Will You Take the Time to Read This?

I’m going to write this piece if it kills me, and, of course, it won’t kill me, although it might agitate you a smidgen. I mean, it will have to be more than a paragraph that will do either of us in, but what I’m trying to relate here, is the lack of anything fresh to offer at the moment. Read an interesting piece in the New York Times the other day which says nobody has the time these days to read a whole magazine article or watch an entire news program because with innumerable messages… Continue

Added by Michael Brown on March 22, 2010 at 3:15am — 10 Comments

Whatever!

I’ve come to the conclusion that my friend Regan is a ditz ‘cause like we went to the mall the other day to shop for shoes, and all the way there in her car, of course, because she’s been claiming I’m a bit reckless behind the wheel since the day I swerved to avoid hitting a dog and she smeared lipstick all over her face, anyway, all the way there, she’s complaining about how Dita Wellsworth was passing unflattering remarks about Janna Morgan, who Regan… Continue

Added by Michael Brown on March 15, 2010 at 10:55pm — 6 Comments

That One Percent Reality

He lay completely still until his nose itched, but he could not scratch it, nor move a muscle as the yoga exercise book explained; this was the way to dream without sleeping, and would leave one feeling totally relaxed, refreshed, and there were other benefits.

He projected familiar men in bowlers and women in billowing skirts on the darkness of his eyelids, so very soon, he was walking among them again; one hundred years gone in a moment, and there was… Continue

Added by Michael Brown on March 14, 2010 at 4:00am — 6 Comments

The Week Ending

I had been feeling guilty for not seeing my Mom so often as I would have liked, and so took the train into Brooklyn one Friday after work, and sat and watched television with her for a while. The hang dog expression she wore disappointed, but not quite as much as what I took to be her pretending to be zoning out. She had survived the loss of a leg to diabetes, some kidney function, and the recent loss of her partner of over twenty years, whom I had finally started calling Pop because he was no… Continue

Added by Michael Brown on March 11, 2010 at 11:57pm — 6 Comments

Why Not?

Because it’s not allowed, or it’s not good for you, or because your eyes will stay that way, and besides, we didn’t have that luxury in my day.

Because it isn’t fair to the rest, and no one’s ever done it, or because it’s too hard or too easy, and once you do it you won’t want to stop.

Maybe because in all likelihood you’ll find it isn’t what you’d imagined it to be, but by then it will be too late to undo it, or because it’s uncouth or uncool or it shows bad breeding, or too much… Continue

Added by Michael Brown on March 7, 2010 at 10:00am — 7 Comments

Ka-ching!

I carry them in by the armload and place them in neat rows for later insertion in the available slots, mostly keeping my thoughts to myself.

“How’re you doing,” Sam asks, “almost ready for a break?”

“Almost,” I say, wiping sweat off my forehead, after depositing a particularly heavy batch, “but I’m guessing there are a couple hundred more out there.” I would like to feel I’ve made some headway before stopping for the night, so I suggest holding off on a break for at least another… Continue

Added by Michael Brown on March 6, 2010 at 9:00am — 3 Comments

Smiling Not Only in Photographs

We look at early photos together and we both laugh, and she says, who are these people, and I, casting a sidelong glance, wonder in silence, who are these? She had dark hair then and smiled all the time, while I was trim and mostly dour. Now she’s what I like to consider blond, and our kids have grown up enough to manage some of their time on their own, and when Kitten smiles these days, acquaintances believe she… Continue

Added by Michael Brown on March 5, 2010 at 10:00am — 5 Comments

"That's Miss Andry to you..."

Okay, so there is this girl I know, who is…well, she would get all fired up if she knew I referred to her as a girl, only she is so very much younger than I am, and I find it difficult to think of her as a woman, a contemporary, I mean. Anyway, there is this woman, who is…I don’t know quite how to say it, I mean she finds fault with practically everything that comes out of my mouth, or my mind; although she seems to be that way with all the guys she… Continue

Added by Michael Brown on March 3, 2010 at 11:54pm — 7 Comments

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