Bill Floyd's Blog – January 2011 Archive (10)

Search Blog Posts

Fish and Lizard, Reconciled

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son," offered up to suffer humiliation and torture for the soul's edification.

 

When Charles Darwin's daughter, Annie, died at age ten, he wrote, "We have lost the joy of the household, and the solace of our old age."

 

The fruit of the tree of knowledge is sour even as it lifts us up in flight.  The ocean's surf speaks in the same voice as the wind across the mountains or the blare of sirens announcing…

Continue

Added by Bill Floyd on January 31, 2011 at 10:11am — 6 Comments

NASA TV

During the evening hours, our local cable access channel shows astronauts floating weightlessly in the cluttered monochromatic cubes of the international space station.  Computer graphics of Saturn's rings, star clusters on the far edge of some billion-dollar telescope's range, elliptical tracks of elemental objects from the other side of the galaxy and beyond.  Engineers chatting casually at mission control, which always seems somehow understaffed.  Tonight there is a long stationary view…

Continue

Added by Bill Floyd on January 27, 2011 at 11:39am — 9 Comments

Dream Team

They gather around his bed as the fever peaks, and he draws back, half-recognizing them, demanding to know who they are and where they've come from.

 

The youngest of them, a boy with a bruised face and eyes aswirl with half-begotten galaxies, tells him, "We're the ones you never got around to writing."

 

He recognizes them now: the high-school teacher with the secret abilities and the inability to keep secrets; the slinking nocturnal thing made of leather and…

Continue

Added by Bill Floyd on January 21, 2011 at 11:04am — 7 Comments

Facing Outward

Enough with this boil and churn: I lock the door behind me, and just start walking.  The half-moon rides above in the clear blue afternoon sky, its surface cratered from a billion years of attraction and collision.  Some kids are competing to see who can slide the furthest on the icy sidewalk.  Litter, birdsong, the faces of the Friday-afternoon drivers strangely dour, as though they are already preoccupied with Saturday.  But I am here and now, cold strolling.  Back home, your mouth is soft,… Continue

Added by Bill Floyd on January 14, 2011 at 4:39pm — 7 Comments

Responsibility and Where It Lies

So now we enter the phase of the national boo-hoo where we all point fingers and cry out: "Why?"  I'll tell you why: Because any asshole can walk into a sporting goods store and buy a gun with a 31 round clip.

 

Before you get all defensive, I know, I understand, the majority of voters in this country have of our own free will affirmed time and time again that we're perfectly willing to live with mass murder as long as no one restricts our access to our semi-automatic security…

Continue

Added by Bill Floyd on January 12, 2011 at 8:00pm — 6 Comments

Fool's Worth (A Sorta Poem)

Your unblemished unruffled wings, your hammering heart beneath my thumb--

these were the first signs I would wound you,

and this would prove my undoing, this great foreknowing, the truth that rides astride:

That only a fool's hands can shape the world entire; only a fool's hands cage the world's great lie.

 

The wise man he outgrows his wounds, never casts his eye behind,

but I recall the back of every hand, each reject tossed aside.

The wise…

Continue

Added by Bill Floyd on January 12, 2011 at 12:38pm — 2 Comments

Born on 9/11

Delivered into this world at the flashpoint where bitter fury and zealotry turned to blood and ash, she might have seen the stunned thousands heading in the other direction and called out to them: "I swear I will try to make things better!"

 

At some point on that long infamous day, her mother might have said, Please, turn it off, I only want to look at her.

 

Whatever the reasons, it seems apparent that Christina Green was a kid who saw her destiny as a…

Continue

Added by Bill Floyd on January 10, 2011 at 11:06am — 13 Comments

Night Letters

Mother sends me with jugs for the water truck before dawn, and by the time I'm headed back home a crowd has gathered in the village square.  During the night someone has nailed a sheet of paper to the door of the bombed out shop that used to sell vegetables, a list of names and a warning that those named should flee by sundown or else face the consequences.  Someone sees me standing there and knocks the jug out of my hand; someone else spits on me.

 

When I arrive home…

Continue

Added by Bill Floyd on January 7, 2011 at 1:03pm — 8 Comments

Moral Hazard

OK, yeah, so I messed up again.  I hate that hurt in your eyes when you find out, but you have to believe I tried to shield you from it.  I never should've told Josh--why is it I feel the need to confess these things when I'm a few beers in?  Of course that asshole had to run his mouth to Katy and she just couldn't wait to tell you and now you're crying and cussing and I just want you to stop a minute and listen to me.  It's not that I don't love you, I really sincerely don't know why I do… Continue

Added by Bill Floyd on January 6, 2011 at 10:47am — 12 Comments

Reset Button (6X2)

Barnes & Dagger

 

Of course I remember her.  She came in every couple of weeks and the guys who work here always mentioned her, the pigs, but I spoke to her a couple of times myself and she was real sweet, not uppity or full of herself like some women who have that kind of look and dress that way can be.  Then the agents came and interviewed us all and told us not to talk about it but since it's on the front page of the newspaper I guess it's okay.  Just…

Continue

Added by Bill Floyd on January 3, 2011 at 2:57pm — 7 Comments

Latest Blog Posts

Most Popular Blog Posts

Blog Topics by Tags

Monthly Archives

2013

2012

2011

2010

© 2013   Created by Robert McEvily.   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service