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Caroline Leavitt interviews Harriet Levin Millan...

NEW YORK TIMES AND USA TODAY BESTSELLING NOVELIST, SCREENWRITER, EDITOR, NAMER, CRITIC, MOVIE ADDICT AND CHOCOHOLIC, Caroline Leavitt, blogs… 

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 2016

Harriet Levin Millan talks about her profound novel-based-on-a-true-story, How Fast Can You Run, about a South Sudan refuge searching for the mother he was separated from when he was five.

“The best war novel told from a young boy’s perspective since Jerzy Kozinski’s The Painted Bird.”

—Nyoul Lueth Tong, author of There is a Country: New Writing from the New Country of South Sudan

Prepare to be amazed. When One Book, One Philadelphia asked author and Drexel University professor Harriet Levin Millan to choose ten of her undergraduate creative writing students to interview ten South Sudanese refugees for a special One Book writing project, she met Michael Majok Kuch, who became the subject of her novel. . Kuch survived the torching of his village in South Sudan, and was separated from his mother when he was only five. His quest to be reunited with her, and the plight of the refuge is both profound and moving. Thank you so much Harriet, for being here.

I always say every book starts with a yearning. What was yours?

My yearning was for Michael Majok Kuch, the S. Sudanese national, I based my novel on, to see his mother. They had been separated since Michael was five-years-old and their village was attacked in the middle of the night and they got separated. So by the time I met him, when he was a senior in college, he hadn’t seen her for nearly 22 years. [more…]

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Publishing

  • Atta Market, India

  • Atta Market
    Sector 18
    The sweat drips
    Down my back
    The shoe wallah
    Hits the sandals
    In the street
    Clapping
    To the mahem
    Of clothes, bags,
    Bangles, childish
    Windmills
    Watches, pajamas,
    Momos
    I enter into
    A shop
    The AC stings
    The droplets
    Running my back
    To catch up:
    300, 400, 800
    For this specially
    Designed pair
    They can double
    Up to be used in
    The shower
    Ergonomic
    I swear
    I get something
    Sparkly for 300
    He says they’re
    Fancy
    They’ll suit the purpose
    I cannot linger
    Any longer
    Pace is picking up again
    I have to brave the street
    And bargain
    Nail polish, lipstick
    Lashed on my hand
    Don’t give me that
    On how many thousands
    Have you tested it
    I’ll take this nicely wrapped
    Stick
    Peach; just perfect
    Give me a discount
    Please
    The kurti I want but I can’t show
    I do…
    How can I fake
    I’ll walk away
    Back and forth the
    Prices sway
    I get a little Less
    Off
    He perhaps gains more
    But each party is happy
    Since it’s a done deal
    And all
    Back in the throng
    Of the streets
    So many colours
    Protesting to me
    You should have
    Bought this or that
    Shined in turquoise
    Delighted
    In pink
    Perused in purple
    Yearned in yellow
    Danced like a
    Raucous rainbow
    I’m alright
    With what I’ve got
    It was a quieter
    Corner where I
    Stopped
    Cramming in with the
    Crowd
    Hugging
    Belongings
    Tight
    Wondering
    Where the metro
    Entry is
    How can it be out
    Of sight
    I’ve gone past
    Oh look there’s a rat
    Scurrying into
    Rubbled ground
    Plants popping
    Out of nowhere
    Don’t look down
    Keep your eyes
    Up
    Back to the metro
    Entry
    I can’t entertain
    This circle
    Endlessly
    Earrings, bindis
    Hot and relentless:
    Weddings
    Hopes ‘n’ dreams
    Survival
    Sings its
    Own song
    No need for
    Music
    With
    The traffic;
    The tips of
    Tambourines
    Plus
    Each hopeful
    Human
    Who
    Bravely
    Beats
    the time
    Along.
    Lydia Poems (Facebook)
    #Atta market #Adventureshoping #indiapoetry

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  • The Vale of Cashmere

  • by Sean Elder

    green forest

    This story first appeared in Voice from the Planet, FREE from March 30 – April 3, 2017 at Amazon Kindle US, and Kindle UK among others.

     

    Truth was, she used to be able to organize her thoughts, until Floyd retired. Now he was always hanging around talking to her, asking what she was doing. Every time he went out, which wasn’t often enough for her taste, he would ask her if she needed anything and then look angry if she did. Sometimes he’d look angry if she didn’t. Now she looked for errands for him, just to get a moment’s peace. When she sent him off for milk this morning she could have lived without it. But she couldn’t have stood listening to him complain about the bus ride to Atlantic City before it happened, not non-stop for the next two hours.

    “You’re creating your future,” she told him. “Whatever you’re thinking and feeling, that becomes your reality.”

    “Don’t give me that shit,” he’d said, putting on his coat and hat. He had been wearing that same damned hat with the stingy brim so long it had come back in style.

    “It’s the law of attraction,” she’d continued. “You can deny it all you want but that don’t mean it’s not true. “Everything coming into your life you are attracting into your life. You’re like a magnet.”

    “Well, this magnet’s going to attract some milk,” he’d said before going out the door.

    He had made fun of her ever since she first heard Oprah talking about The Secret but deep down she thought that maybe he believed her. Or would, if he would just give it a try. He would come home so angry about something that happened out there – the security guy asleep in the chair, or someone who wouldn’t give his seat up on the subway – and she would tell him, “Every bad thing that comes into your life, you make happen.”

    Sometimes that really made Floyd angry. “Is that right? Every bad thing? I made happen every bad thing that came into my life, Marcy?” He would tower over her, breathing heavily, staring at the top of her lacquered hair until she was silent.

    She looked closely at the big digits on the clock by the bed. It was almost 8:30 and she still had not done her makeup. From the drawer in the nightstand on her side of the bed she looked for her own pill organizer and then realized she had already taken it out. She put it under the light, right beside that picture of her two boys, smiling in the lap of a black Santa, and looked at Wednesday. There were still pills in the morning box but the evening box was empty. Maybe she took the evening pills by mistake. Not that it mattered ‘cause they were basically the same. Or maybe she hadn’t filled the PM part.

    Looking at the rainbow colored compartments (Wednesday was green, Thursday red) she thought of Wilson, who had the hardest time with his R’s when he was little – “Weeding Wainbow,” he would say about his favorite show, and his brother would laugh at him. She felt overcome for a moment and then heard her husband’s keys in the door.

    She took the morning pills, four altogether, as Floyd shouted at her from the kitchen.

    “Do you know how much they wanted for a half-gallon of milk?” She imagined his face as he said the price and the way he would look at her afterwards. He might be looking that way right now, even though she wasn’t there.

    “Cost of everything is going up,” she yelled back. Then she stood and headed for the bathroom. “I got to get a move on.”

    “Ain’t you even going to drink your milk?” She heard him swear as she closed the bathroom door.

    The bus driver turned out to be some white guy who’d been sleeping in the back while people waited outside. The whole bus was talking about it, even after they got out of the Holland Tunnel and were getting on the turnpike, people tisking and hmm-hmming until Floyd wanted to yell, “Who told you to stand out there in the first place? It’s not even cold.” But he kept quiet and sat by a window, alone thank you very much, though Tommy insisted on sitting right in front of him, while Marcy huddled on the other side with a bunch of ladies. They outnumbered the men five to one anyway; he let Tommy represent, going back and forth across the aisle like some congressman making a deal. Each time he went over to the ladies he would say something so low that Floyd couldn’t hear and they would all laugh and holler.

    “I think it’s about time for some music,” Tommy said after one of his sorties. He had a gym bag with him that also said Mets on it, and from it he pulled a boom box that he tried to balance on the seatback in front of him. He pushed play and Johnnie Taylor started in on “Who’s Making Love” and the ladies all laughed, even though the sound was kind of wobbly. From the front of the bus the driver said something, they could see him looking at them in the rear view mirror, but no one tried to hear him. In fact Tommy stood up, with the boom box on his shoulder, and started to shake it in the aisle, which made the driver get on the mike.

    “Sir, I’m going to have to ask you to sit down.” He had some kind of accent, Russian or something, but no one really paid him any mind.

    The hits kept coming; it must have been some kind of collection since Floyd never heard a deejay. Tommy jammed the boom box between the headrest and the window so it wouldn’t fall down and turned around to look at Floyd, but not before looking at the driver, who had his eyes on the road again.

    “How ‘bout a little taste?” Tommy said, taking a half-pint in a brown bag from the pocket of his jacket.

    “Too early for me,” Floyd said, looking out the window. To him it always looked like New Jersey was halfway through being torn down.

    Across the aisle Marcy was in the middle of a conversation with the other ladies but she didn’t feel quite right. It started as soon as she left the building; she had picked out a brooch to go with her blue blouse, a little gold tree with red apples on it, but she had left it sitting in front of the mirror. Now she felt naked, all that blue stretching out below her chin like an empty ocean almost and she felt like she was being pulled back from drowning each time one of them stopped talking. That meant somebody was supposed to say something, you were supposed to jump in like it was a game of double-Dutch.

    “What I value most is the privacy,” Marcy said, but no one answered. She had a feeling she had said that before. The topic was assisted living and how to know when you needed it.

    “Until you wake up privately dead,” said the lady in the Kente cloth. Marcy didn’t remember meeting her before, a friend of Helen’s was how she was introduced, but she didn’t like her now. She had these gray and white streaks in her hair, extensions by the look of it, but it reminded Marcy of mud. Besides she was probably the youngest woman of the bunch, what was she talking about dying for?

    “My boy checks in on us every night,” said Marcy and immediately wondered why she had. It wasn’t true. Most times she had to call Eric and he never sounded too happy to hear from her. He did come to visit though, once a month at least. They saw less of him after his divorce, though you’d think it would be the other way around.

    “Where are we?” she said suddenly, looking out the window. Everything looked the same.

    “You keep asking that,” the lady in the Kente cloth said, or maybe she said. Marcy wasn’t looking at her and the music Tommy was playing made her feel lost.

    “Sending this one out for all you ladies,” said Tommy, like he was some deejay, and they all laughed but Marcy didn’t think it was funny. It was that song about sitting on a park bench that always made her sad. “I see her face everywhere I go/on the street and even at the picture show/have you seen her?”

    There was a hospital up there high on a hill and for a second she felt that the bus was going to take off and fly straight up to its doors. She closed her eyes and felt herself rise.

    They parked in the lot of the Showboat casino. Though they could have gone anywhere they wanted, the thirty odd passengers that disembarked made for the Showboat as if summoned, shuffling and limping toward the entrance in a broken conga line.

    “No one says we got to go to this casino,” Floyd said to the crowd of ladies leading the way.

    “The Showboat has a Mardi Gras theme,” said the lady in the Kente cloth. She turned around to give Floyd the fisheye, pulling down her glasses as she did. “Besides, we got coupons for the Showboat.”

    He fell in line sullenly beside Tommy who offered him another drink. Floyd took a swallow this time without pulling down the brown paper to see what it was. It tasted like mouthwash.

    “Jesus, what the hell you drinking?”

    “Little peppermint schnapps.” Tommy tried to slap Floyd on the back but the big man danced away, handing the bottle back as he moved.

    “What she mean by a ‘Mardi Gras theme,’ anyway?” Floyd said.

    Tommy shrugged. “As long as they got free drinks and blackjack I don’t much care.”

    Seagulls screamed overhead. Floyd saw his reflection scowling in the window of a parked Humvee. He went to New Orleans during Mardi Gras when he was in the Navy, how many years ago? He got lost and someone stole his wallet. A man dressed as a woman tried to put beads around his neck, he remembered. You could have your Mardi Gras.

    Marcy was among the first of the women to enter the casino and the air conditioning hit her like a cold wave. “Good thing I remembered my shawl!” she said but no one answered. The music and the sound of the slot machines, dinging and ringing with sirens going off every five minutes as if some crime was being committed, swallowed her voice.

    Marcy had thought to bring rolls of quarters and silver dollars. While the other ladies were getting change she was already pouring her silver into a red plastic cup provided to her by a girl in the shortest skirt she had ever seen.

    “You must be freezing!” Marcy said but the girl didn’t seem to hear her. Maybe she just got tired of people trying to talk to her.

    The slots area had thousands of machines and at noon it was already half filled, mostly old timers like her and Floyd. He and Tommy had set off in the other direction like there was a sign saying ‘Men, That Way.’ The carpets were in a pattern of red and orange and gold that reminded her of a kaleidoscope and the ceiling was made up to look like stained glass, though she knew real stained glass when she saw it and this wasn’t it. She felt like if she didn’t sit down she might just fall into the colors. She sat down at a quarter machine and began feeding it. She didn’t know where the other ladies had gone and looking over her shoulder left her none the wiser.

    “Y’all gonna have to find me,” she said and as if summoned a different lady in a short skirt appeared.

    “How you doing today?” she said. She had a tray filled with drinks and a notepad tucked into her belt. “Can I get you something to drink?”

    “Well I suppose you can!” Marcy turned in her chair to show her appreciation. “My name’s Marcy by the way, I come here from Brooklyn with a bunch of folks from my church group.”

    “Now isn’t that nice? My name’s Kim Sue. What can I get you?”

    Marcy smiled and opened her mouth. But she could not think of the names of any drinks, not just the fancy ones but any drink. She felt a trickle of sweat run down her back underneath her blouse.

    “It’s funny,” she said, embarrassed. “My mind’s just a blank today.”

    “Sure, no problem!” Kim Sue smiled back at her like one of those Chinese dolls, her name right there on her badge. “We have beer and wine and soda and mixed drinks.” She kept smiling at Marcy and continued. “I could make you a nice white wine spritzer, if you like.”

    “Oh, that sounds nice,” said Marcy, and it did sound nice, like a sprinkler in the summer time, the kind the boys used to play in. Kim Sue left and Marcy returned to the machine. Cherries and plums rolled past, never stopping at the same time.

    Eric used to chase Wilson through the sprinklers in the park and sometimes when Marcy wasn’t looking he would hold his little brother down and try to pull off his shorts in front of all the other children. She would get so mad at him, always teasing like that, knowing it would make Wilson cry and come looking for her, but she had a job then, looking after a little white boy named Oskar whose parents lived in Park Slope and worked all the time. Oskar’a parents didn’t mind too much when she brought her boys with her when she took him to the park. “As long as you remember,” the father said, “that Oskar is your first priority.”

    Well of course he is, mister doctor man! Why would my own flesh and blood come before your little prince? Good gracious, the things that man would say. If the wife heard him she would weigh in and try to soften the blow. “What my husband means is that we don’t want you to get too distracted. Three children is a handful.”

    Now that was the kind of thing only a white person would say. Where she came from three children was just getting started, even if she was done after Wilson, something her own mother could never understand.

    “Oh, don’t worry, ma’am,” Marcy would say. “I won’t ever let Oskar out of my sight.”

    All these people thinking someone was going to steal their child then, like the whole country had gone crazy. Soon they’d be putting their pictures on milk cartons and billboards and on TV during the news – “Have you seen Brandon?” Usually white kids. If a black kid went missing generally people know who took him.

    “Here you go, ma’am.”

    Kim Sue was back with her drink. It was in a big plastic cup with a straw that went in curlicues, like a roller coaster, like this was for a child. She started fishing in her coin cup.

    “Drinks are complimentary, ma’am.”

    Like I didn’t know that. She pulled out a Susan B. Anthony and put it on her tray. “That’s for you,” she said.

    “Very nice of you, ma’am. And if you need anything else you just let me know.”

    She turned to leave and Marcy was afraid to see her go. “Kim Sue, it’s like your momma gave you two names.”

    “Kim is my family name. Family name comes first in Korean.”

    “Is that right?” said Marcy. “Well I think family should come first, don’t you?”

    “Yes, ma’am.”

    Marcy thought that was something else she should write in her book but realized that she hadn’t brought it with her, and then forgot what she had said. “But they probably don’t spell it like that in Korea, do they? The Sue, I mean.”

    “No, ma’am, we have a different alphabet.”

    “Now isn’t that something?”

    She was balancing a tray full of drinks while she talked to Marcy so she let her go, disappearing into the big Tiffany lamp around them. A band was playing Dixieland and Marcy strained her eyes to see them. The music seemed to be coming from everywhere at once, “When the Saints Come Marching In.”

    “Let me tell you another,” she said, sipping on her drink. The lady at the machine next to her looked at Marcy and then moved away, taking her quarters with her. She watched as the drink spun up the straw when she sucked. Here we go loop de loop.

    Sometimes Eric would help her push the stroller as they went around the park, and Wilson would run so far ahead she would shout after him. “Don’t go where I can’t see you!” she’d holler, and Oskar, too big to be pushed around in a stroller, would try and stand up and yell after her. “Go where I can’t see you!”

    Wilson would hide like that at home as well; hide so good she couldn’t find him sometimes. They were living in Prospect-Lefferts, more house than they needed but you could afford those big limestone buildings then even on a Con Ed salary and Wilson would go into different rooms and be so quiet that she would get hysterical, be practically beside herself by the time her husband got home. Then they would hear him laughing. “Got you!” he would say and emerge from the cupboard or from behind the sideboard and Floyd would get so mad. That one time he came out of her closet wearing her bra and Floyd just about went crazy; took off his belt and chased him.

    She put in a coin and pulled the lever: a watermelon; a bell; the number seven in gold.

    “What numbers are you playing today?”

    She turned her head but nobody was there. Who had spoken? Just turning her head made the colors around her move and when she looked at the floor she saw the pattern there was moving too. It was like a flying carpet, the Vale of Cashmere –

    The Vale of Cashmere! That was the name of that strange corner of the park where she took the boys now and then. They were getting older; other boys took the place of Oskar, and Eric got too big to want to be with them. But Wilson kept her company as she made the rounds, bought them ice cream and wiped their sticky hands. People used to call it The Swamp and there was a muddy pond okay and some hanging trees.

    “How come you don’t play with boys your own age?” one of the kids had asked him once.

    “I just like to help my momma,” he’d said.

    He was the one who found out the real name of The Swamp, checked an old book out of the library and showed her on the map. There was a poem that went with it and Wilson stood up by the pond and put one finger in the air as he read: “Who has not heard of the Vale of Cashmere/With its roses the brightest the earth ever gave?”

    Another babysitter saw them by the pond once and came over to warn them. “You shouldn’t be down in there,” she said, afraid to come too close with her stroller in front of her. “They say men get together down there.”

    And after that Marcy noticed them, lurking about, standing in the trees. Once when she came down with Wilson and a stroller two men ran out, going in different directions.

    She didn’t think about it again for years, until Wilson was grown and still living at home, and he came back one night that first time with his face all bloody, drunk or high on something and smiled at her, blood on his teeth.

    “Hey, Momma, I been to the Vale of Cashmere!”

    That’s when Floyd said no more.

    “What numbers are you playing today?”

    She turned and the colors whooshed like a scarf being wrapped around her head. She saw her this time, a little woman, no bigger than a dragonfly like the ones the boys chased in the park, Wilson would put them in a jar with holes punched in the top, while Eric tried to cover it up with his hand so they would smother.

    “I’m looking for three sevens,” Marcy said to the dragonfly woman. “Are there some other numbers to play?”

    “That is the question, isn’t it?” said the faerie. “Are there other numbers to play?”

    And then she flew away, just like a little hummingbird, and Marcy got up to follow her, passing into the pattern of colors and leaving her cup of coins behind.

    Floyd went through all his money the first hour. Not all his money but all the money he’d meant to spend, the money he put in his shirt pocket, seemed to fly off the table. Dealer beat him every time: if Floyd had 18, the dealer had 19; if Floyd sat on a 19, the dealer hit him with two bricks.

    “I guess this lady feels like she has to show us what a blackjack looks like,” said Tommy, when the dealer drew her third in ten minutes. She apologized to them both, even though they didn’t tip her, and Tommy’s luck was better than hers: He doubled down twice and made a hundred bucks in the blink of an eye. All Floyd could do, once he had spent the money he had earmarked for this outing, was sit there and simmer in his resentment while Tommy’s chip pile grew.

    That was when Helen, the lady in the purple pantsuit, came and asked if he knew where Marcy was.

    “I thought she was with you,” said Floyd. It came out like an accusation.

    “Well, we agreed to meet for lunch at three,” she said, “but then nobody could find Marcy. We figured maybe you two went off together.”

    And that’s how well you know us, Floyd thought. “Maybe she just went off to another casino by herself,” he said. Even though he was losing, and wasn’t even playing at the time, he didn’t want to have to leave his spot and go look for his wife. “There’s no law says we got to stay here.”

    “Blackjack,” said the dealer, flipping another ace.

    But after a minute he did get up to look, as he knew he would, leaving Tommy, who still had a hot hand and no doubt wondered what all the fuss was about.

    “Did you try the ladies room?” he asked Helen.

    “That was one of the first places we looked. They have sofas in there, you know.” She paused. “Do you think we should call security?”

    The suggestion made his blood pressure rise. “No, I don’t think we should call security. Christ sake, grown woman goes off for a few minutes and you want to call the cavalry?”

    “Does she have a cell phone?”

    “Our son gave her one but she couldn’t figure out how to use it.” This was literally half true: Eric had given them each one last Christmas, and neither of them could figure out how to use it. By the time Floyd got the hang of it he realized that the only person he would call was his wife, which was kind of stupid since he saw her all the time anyway.

    They looked all the places that they had already looked and the lady in the Kente cloth joined them, acting more concerned that Floyd felt. “We need a system,” she said, as they circled the room for the second time. The place was more crowded than ever and Floyd could hardly hear what she was saying. “How about I go stake out the buffet and you stay here?” she suggested to Helen.

    “How ‘bout I go stake out the buffet?” Helen said. “I haven’t had lunch yet.”

    Floyd said they could both go feed themselves and take their time doing it; Marcy would turn up. He stood like a sentinel beneath the bells and sirens of the Mardi Gras slots, scowling most of the time. He hated slot machines; there was no sport in it, as he often told his wife. Blackjack at least you were playing the odds. Slots to him was just dumb luck, like a rabbit betting it wouldn’t get run over when it ran across the road. Twice he thought he saw his wife, and each time he took pleasure in anticipating just how much grief he was going to give her. But each time he was wrong.

    By four o’clock they were back together, Tommy too, and they began to set out in search parties. They were a small group: most of the travelers didn’t want to leave their stations, since the bus was scheduled to leave at six and this whole business had already cut into their time as it was. The lady in the Kente cloth, who finally introduced herself as Niobe, took charge. She contacted the hotel security, who seemed to have some experience with old folks wandering off, and as the witching hour neared, and the day-trippers started heading back toward the bus, she went out and argued with the bus driver, who was pretty adamant about leaving on time.

    “You can’t just go off and leave an old lady alone,” she scolded him. The engine was already running, gently shaking the bus, while the AC gusted out the door in heavy welcoming breaths.

    “I won’t be leaving her alone,” the driver said. “I will be leaving you to find her.”

    He agreed to wait as they made one last search. A handful of them fanned out, going to neighboring casinos and restaurants, off the boardwalk and into the side streets. Floyd couldn’t help but think that Marcy was messing with him the whole time, and when he saw the impatient faces of the other folks on the bus – they’d lost their money and had their fill, they just wanted to go home – he couldn’t help but side with them.

    Most of the people he saw as he wandered were wearing shorts and T-shirts. Used to be people would get dressed up to go someplace. And when did everybody get so fat? Walking down the boardwalk, bag of French fries in your hand, what did you expect? The new motto for the city was “Always Turned On,” which he found kind of creepy. There was nothing that he saw that turned him on.

    Doors were open, air conditioning blasting out, cooling nothing. Floyd took to popping into places and doing a quick look around, not even asking half the time if they’d seen anyone who looked like his wife. One, they couldn’t hear you with all that noise and two, half of them couldn’t speak English.

    “You seen an old black lady?” he shouted at one girl scooping ice cream. Her nails were so long he figured they might end up in somebody’s cone. “Blue shirt, about this high?” She stared at him like he was the one with the language problem.

    He kept walking. Going in and out of the summer sun was making him dizzy, to say nothing of thirsty. He wished for the first time that Tommy was with him. That man would always stop for a drink. He saw people in those rolling chairs, being pushed by young people, girls sometimes. And you wonder why you so fat?

    Down at one end of the boardwalk he found what looked like a real bar. The crowd had trickled off as the sun sank lower in the sky. Go on, get out of here. A lot of good you been. Floyd ducked inside and felt the rivers of sweat roll out from under his hat and chill on his face and neck. His glasses steamed as he took a seat at the bar and ordered a gin and tonic. He perched on the stool and looked up at the game on TV. The waitress brought him his drink and man did that taste good. No skimping on the gin, either. He forgot to ask her about Marcy. His wallet was bothering him, he felt like he was balancing on it. When she asked him if he wanted to start a tab he simply nodded.

    “You got a phone?” She pointed to an old-fashioned booth in the back, kind Superman used to change in. The place was filling up, young couples waiting for dinner. Went back to the hotel to put your dress shorts on? Once inside the paneled wood booth he forgot who he was going to call. Eric, right. He searched the scraps of paper in his wallet for the number he never had cause to memorize and let it ring, go to voicemail, and then dialed again.

    “Hello?”

    “This ain’t no telemarketer.”

    “Hey, Pop.” He did not sound happy to hear from him and Floyd had already put enough change in the machine so he cut straight to the point.

    “We in Atlantic City and your mother’s gone missing.” He backtracked from there, explaining the whole afternoon in greater detail than Eric needed, but never did his son sound any more excited than Floyd felt. He asked the obvious questions – had they called the police? Who else was looking?

    “Did she have her cell phone?” he asked, pointedly.

    “That’s why I was calling,” Floyd said. “I figured maybe she’d called you.”

    Eric was silent, and Floyd knew that he knew he was lying. He imagined him at home, still in his work clothes, the sound on the TV muted, his eyes on the game. From his perch in the booth Floyd could see the TV over the bar. Jeter was trying to steal.

    “I’m sure she’ll turn up, Pop. I mean, where’s she gonna go?”

    “I know that.”

    “You got your cell phone with you? So I can call you if she does?”

    Floyd muttered something and got off the phone. That boy would go to his grave asking about those damn phones. He should just wrap them up and give them back to him for Christmas. Turn ‘em into salt-and-pepper shakers.

    When he got back to his seat at the bar Jeter got picked off and he ordered another drink. Now they could send the search party out for him. The tumblers were tall and when he turned in his seat he found he had company. Big old white dude with long hair and a pointed beard. He was sipping a Budweiser longneck and looking at the screen. His arms were covered in tattoos; dragons, snakes and skulls disappeared into his shirtsleeves.

    “Fuckin’ Yankees,” he said and turned to look at Floyd. “Nice hat.”

    Floyd turned to face his own reflection in the mirror behind the bar. “You wouldn’t believe how long I had this hat,” he said.

    “There isn’t much I wouldn’t believe,” the man said.

    They got to talking. Turned out he worked in a tattoo parlor on the boardwalk, which explained all the ink. Half way through his second drink and Floyd was feeling generous in his opinions.

    “Back in the day,” he said, “man had a tattoo it meant he’d been someplace. In the service, in the joint, you know.”

    “I hear you,” the man said. “These days it just means you been to the mall.” He drained his beer and held up the empty. “Buy you a drink?”

    “Let me buy you a drink,” said Floyd, and pulled out the fat wallet that had been giving him such a pain and laid it on the counter. Soon he had the pictures out and was showing him snaps of Eric, bragging on his job even if he wasn’t exactly sure what he did. Then one of the whole family, when everyone was young.

    “Where’s your other boy?” the stranger asked.

    Floyd made a face like he was sucking on a lime. “Wilson got killed in a hold-up ten years ago,” he said.

    “Oh, man, I am sorry. They catch the guy who did it?”

    “No, it was in Prospect Park one night. Lot of crime in there.”

    “That’s why I could never live in the city,” the man said, which struck Tommy as funny. Most people would be scared of him, even in Brooklyn.

    “So what happens when folks get old?” said Floyd, changing the subject. “Maybe they don’t want all those tattoos any more.”

    “Shit, you don’t have to wait ‘til your old to regret something stupid you did.” The man laughed and Floyd got a glimmer of a gold tooth in his head. “People come in all the time wanting to have tattoos taken off, usually the name of some girl that don’t love them anymore.”

    “Can you do it?”

    “Sure,” the man said. “Hurts like hell and costs twice as much. But we can do it. Easier just to change it, though.”

    “How do you mean?”

    “Well, there was this one girl who loved a guy named Chris and had it tattooed on her ass. Until she found Jesus and then we just added a ‘T’.”

    He didn’t smile at first and it took Floyd a minute to figure it was a joke. He smiled first. “Hey, I got one,” he said. The stranger’s eyes gleamed in anticipation. “There was this guy who loved this old girl so much he had her name tattooed on his Johnson.”

    “Now that’s gotta hurt!”

    “Hell, yeah.” Floyd wiped his mouth. “Then they broke up, you know, and soon he started missing her real bad. So he went all over looking for her, from Wisconsin all the way down to Jamaica. Then he’s in the bathroom one day and he looks over and he sees this other guy’s dick.” He stopped for a minute. The stranger kept staring at him. “Now I can’t remember that girl’s name.”

    “Is it important?”

    “Yeah, it’s the whole punch line.”

    “Uh, oh. Better have another drink.”

    He felt flushed and excused himself to go to the bathroom. There he stared straight ahead at the wall and read all the graffiti as if looking for a message. And by the time he got back to the bar he was not surprised to see the stranger was gone and with him his wallet though all Floyd could feel was a keen sense of disappointment: He remembered the end of the joke now. He had remembered that old girl’s name.

    ______________________

    voice from the planet

    ‘Vale of Cashmere’ was first published by Harvard Square Editions in Voice from the Planet, FREE from March 30 – April 3, 2017 at Amazon Kindle US, and Kindle UK among others. Sean Elder’s writing has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, National Geographic, New York Magazine, Salon, Slate, Vogue, Elle, Men’s Journal, Men’s Health, O: The Oprah Magazine, Gourmet, Food & Wine, Details and many other publications. The essay he contributed to the collection of men’s writings The Bastard On the Couch (Morrow, 2004) was reprinted on three continents; his essay on ecstasy, included in the collection of drug writings entitled White Rabbit (Chronicle Books, 1995) was called “seminal” by Granta; and a piece he wrote about being a stay-at-home dad for Oprah was included in her best of O collection, Live Your Best Life (Oxmoor, 2005). He has co-authored several books, including Websites That Work with designer Roger Black (Adobe Press, 1997) and Mission Al Jazeera with former Marine captain Josh Rushing (Palgrave, 2007). He also works as a book doctor and helped edit the forthcoming Making Rounds with Oscar by Dr. David Dosa (Hyperion, 2010). He lives in Brooklyn, New York with his wife and daughter.

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  • All at Once: Excerpt of the Novel

  • I step onto a wide stone platform surrounded by water and lie on my stomach to peer down over the edge. At my approach, tiny fish scatter like drops of colored light; crabs pause, wary, then scuttle along the sides of the basin, stuffing their mouths as fast as they can with alternate pincers. After a while, a kind of brown finger wriggles out from the shadows. Another one emerges, then two more, and finally the bulbous body of an octopus comes into view. It skims along until the water is too shallow then starts to walk, using its tentacles as legs. When the water gets deeper it pushes off against the sandy bottom to glide, once more, just beneath the surface. It circles round and round my platform.

    aao cover

    My back begins to prickle, and I realize I’ll be burnt to a crisp if I don’t find shelter pretty soonthe ocean breeze masks the sun’s virulence.

    Standing up makes me momentarily dizzy. The tide has gone out, uncovering rocks studded with barnacles or slick with thick green hair. I head back toward the flat sand and continue walking, looking for a place to rest. I’ve just about resigned myself to the idea of a plastic chair, when I spot a barraca that’s not open for business. The beach in front of it is empty, the small structure shuttered; its thatched roof casts a nice, wide stripe of shade onto the sand. Gratefully, I set up camp, taking out the water and crackers I brought, spreading out my towel to sit on, and leaning against the barraca wall with the empty backpack in between for cushioning. A sigh of relief.

    The ocean is now more white than blue. At the horizon, a wavering smudge might be a cruise ship or an oil rig. The great mass of water is barely disturbed by shifting waves, fretful and sluggish like a dog settling down to sleep. There’s an occasional bloom of white spray when a wave breaks against rock; wisps of cloud trail across the sky. I yawn, lie down on the towel, and close my eyes.

    Now the landscape is reduced to the rustle of wind in the palm thatch, the faint piping of a distant bird, and the dull roar of the ocean. I stretch my arms and let them flop back down. Rolling my head slowly from side to side to loosen the tension in my neck, I notice that this movement causes the pitch of the ocean to vary ever so slightly. Intrigued, I try it a few more times, just to make sure.

    There’s a lesson in that, I reflect: reality changes according to your viewpoint. I roll my head once more from side to side then lie still again, listening to the tiny, ceaseless fluctuations within the monotone.

    An insect lands on my footwithout opening my eyes I flex my toe to chase it away, and realize that the gesture produced an infinitesimal shift in the ocean sound. Bizarre! I can understand the position of my head influencing what I hear, but the position of my toe? (more…)

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HNY?

 

(For All Who Fall beneath the Pall)
 

Hey diddle
diddle
Nero will fiddle
 
whilst the rest
of us lie
aswoon
 

life for a few
is a merry old
sport
 
and they are
all so
over the moon
 
*
 
Old King Cole
is a droll
old troll
 
he has fired
his
fiddlers three
 
his pipe
he
gets from Salvador
 
his bowl
from
over the sea

 
*
 
For that’s the
way
we do things here

in the land of
the bare
and the free

 
*
 
Humpty Dumpty
planned a great
wall
 
to keep riffraff
at bay
 
when the
beggarly rose
in dire dismay
 
Humpty
fled
clean away
 
*
 
Birds of
a feather
now plot
together
 
along with
cohort
swine
 
masters could lose
their
fiddling sticks
 
and dames
run
out of wine

 
*
 
Alack Jack isn’t
nimble
no more
 
they shipped
his work off
to a foreign shore
 
like Oliver
now
he begs for more
 
*
 
Mother Hubbard
is short one
cupboard
 
they took
away her
dole
 

the country
is bare
but everywhere
 
and they have
repossessed
our soul

 
[© R.Kanth 2022]

 

Professor Rajani Kanth, is Author of Coda (Novel) , A Day in the Life (Novel), and Expiations (Verse)

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The Governors

 

Faith, the Regents never know
when their knickers are on fire
for the emperor loves his togs
indeed his boudoir entire

 
All besotted with The Prize
is that mad werewolf – desire!
for more, more – and ever, more!
omnisplendent attire

 

Upto the gills with rank
recidivistic wine
they dirty dance
the tremulous plank
into cataracts of brine
 
They vouchsafe to rule us
they who care to fool us
thinking they can school us
shall eftsoons repine

 

The writing on the wall
they heed not its design
The mills may grind slowly
but oh ever so fine

 
The tawdry Empire never tires
despite expurgating fires
though the rot has gutted
through and through
from drawbridge to the spires

 
[© R.Kanth 2022]

 

Professor Rajani Kanth, is Author of Coda (Novel) , A Day in the Life (Novel), and Expiations (Verse)

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Ballad for a Wintry Afternoon

 
(For the lorn)
 

Because I
could not
stop for her
she would not
stop for me

and so we
crossed
each other out
until eternity

until eternity
it was
I saw her
yet again

this time
we both stepped
out of line
to ask
about the pain

her answer was
a query
my own reply
a lie

for we were
both
but weary
of the truth
that questions
why?

how can we
know
the meanings now
of words left
unsaid?

of deeds left
but half undone
of fears
that fancy bred?

and dreams there were
a hundred score
and yearnings
even more

the agony of
sorrow fed
on joys that
went before

for my love
is like a waterway
winding through
the wastes
of time

now sliding down a
vale of
tears
now climbing
hills sublime

yes, my love is
like a waterway
but hers is like
a rose

so she prefers
to let it
lay
full blown
in sweet repose

but I adhere
to older fears
and ask: whither
it goes?

why the wonder
is gone to weed
though the musk
within
still blows?
 
(ii)
 
Love beats to
slower paces
now
or so the
aging markers
tell

the sirens sleep
a goodly sleep
nor hear
the tolling
bell
 
(iii)
 
Because one did
not
dare to do
another, firmly
found a way

and time
that keeps the
record books
but let this record
say

he loved
too dearly to be
true
nor sought to
question why

he chanced upon
his only truth
but she took it
for a lie

they take the blame
who know the game
and fools, they
rarely gain

but O dear god!
for but one more
chance
to roll the dice
again!

to roll the dice again
ye gods!
wanting (just once)
to win

to beat the reign
of unbroken odds
and still the pain
within

to still the pain
of impassioned love
unrequited to
the last

to dull the flame
of fury born
from raw remembrance
past

raw remembrance past
dear heart!
fury, forever slain

banished hurt from
all the scars
in this world
now on the wane

yes, in our world
now on the wane
I fear
the years have left
us dry

and now only
the dregs remain
nor tears to
help us cry

yes, our world
is on the wane
my friend
time’s arrow
speeds on high

our fondest hopes
now vain my love
our sweetest smile
a sigh!

in swiftest streams
the sands run out
Our joys grow
spectre thin

age withers our
sparkled mein
as lifeblood
cools within
 
(iv)
 
like dusk at noon
or a dappled moon
our lives begin
to pale

in mine and thine
my Valentine
the light begins
to fail

the light begins
to fail,
O hark!
the night is on
the rise

the song of life
is come to grief
O hear its
last reprise!

an epitaph
for both our hearts
build high above
this hill

buffeted by storm
and wind
it holds
its banners still

‘here lie two such
as never were
betrayed
beneath the sun

here, beauty rests her
lonely heart
here love, ardors
Undone’

here, an angel
writhes for peace
there, a god sleeps
restless nigh

both fled to
havens
past the seas
where the scented
gardens lie

where the jasmine
weaves
a bed of dreams
and passions wake
to spring

where music
flows by fluted
streams
and nightingales
ache to sing

adieu, they fly
on wings of love
and steak across
the blue

but will the myriad
stars above
still swear
their passions true?

ye gods that
write our mortal
script!
but was their
passion true
?
 
[© R.Kanth 2022]

 

Professor Rajani Kanth, is Author of Coda (Novel) , A Day in the Life (Novel), and Expiations (Verse)

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Celebration

 
(For all who thirst)
 
A hunger burst upon me wild
the source I could not descry
I rose from a sleepless slumber
to ask the wherefore and why
 
I had stood my life at windows
not ever daring to eat
but staring at such diners
Deep delved in wine and meat
 
This fruit of the bread that breaks
I saw it healed them not
the juice of the grape that slakes
I saw it steeled them not
 
I had put aside in the past
the grosser appetite
for the soul had so dearly wished
to be but laden light
 
But give me now your breadstick
your chalice of chafing wine
tonight I think it’s high time
to welter with the swine

 
[© R.Kanth 2022]

 

Professor Rajani Kanth, is Author of Coda (Novel) , A Day in the Life (Novel), and Expiations (Verse)

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Xmas Rumination

 
In the abbey
of the inner
mind

an unholy
thought
I could not find

in the garden
of the
gentle heart

not one feint
that stooped
to art
 
*
 
Within, true
even
well and wise

the very
provenance
of paradise

only when we
forfeit
this home

all paths lead
to debauch
and Rome

 
*
 
Once we
slough
the inner child

do we go
unruthful
into the wild

born true
yet prey
to travails

the spirit strong
in the world
it fails

for in
multitudes
we cease
to be

in sweet
kindred
and affinity
 
*
 
Narrow
the compass
of inner desire

when large looms
trespass
comes frenzy
and fire

 
*
 
Safe
is the hearth
sweeter
the home

outside that
nunnery
neither rove
nor roam

 
*
 
Where small stays
the compass

there large
looms the heart

when large
is the trespass

we come aloof
and apart

when we bow
to the gods

of little
things

the heart
surmises

and the spirit
sings

 
[© R.Kanth 2022]

 

Professor Rajani Kanth, is Author of Coda (Novel) , A Day in the Life (Novel), and Expiations (Verse)

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She

 
(For the lorn and the reft)
 
She rides with the rapture
I reel with the storm
her darkness forestalling
my own burst of dawn

morning beckoning
the red robins call
my heart’s all a-flutter
as the feathers, they fall

afternoon shadows
evenings of light
my sun is slow setting
let there be night
 
*
 
Gardens a-growing
fountains at play
fled from the frolic
I must hasten away

tomorrow is tempered
the games are undone
too late for this dreamer
decline is begun

dark noons are gathered
the skies are ablaze
yesterday dismounting
I falter from grace
 
*
 
In the far yonder
pale moons are anon
my sky is gone awry
the spool has unspun

she flies with the falcon
I wilt with the rose
red pennants are flying
as the blood river flows

so the blood river flows
yet am I unstirred
her ways may be winsome
but my songs are unheard
 
*
 
Swept by the tempests
borne by the trees
I cleave to her conquests
she clings to the breeze

days of dull glory
evenings macabre
noons with no solace
nights of dead stars

though scorched by the cinders
I stoke her red fires
but dark love hinders
and passion retires
 
*
 

I ravage her darkness
she’ll ravish my light
the living repining
to the phantoms’ delight

incense is bending
but the boughs are unbent
my life is but ending
and hers is unspent

my gods are come glancing
the bowers below
her demons advancing
are felled by a blow

fetch me a wood sprite
these forests among
for the glens are a-glooming
my springs are unsprung
 
*
 
Anthems appealing
I sing to her vales
she, blissful, unhearing
and nothing avails

she stalks by the rushes
the willows among
in afternoon hushes
my songs go unsung
 
*
 
Night birds are calling
my fears from afield
darkness appalling
my fate is now sealed

footsteps echoing
the hallways are dim
dark clouds a-blowing
the aspect is grim

she laughs at my fading
lips in full bloom
longing, evading,
my raptures of gloom

come not in a teasing
rapier unhung
so winsome, appeasing
yet mortally sprung
 

*
 

No ambient sorrows
no luminous joys
no cares for the morrow
no tedious ploys

my love is a pardon
for the sins of my life
an enchanted garden
where serpents are rife

no care for the morrow
all’s put paid from the start
still burgeoning sorrows
load the unyielding heart

my love is a dreaming
of a world held at bay
no hunters, no hunted
no stalker, no prey

in the fit of my fever
I pine for love past
the passions that (op)press me
love’s languors that last
 
*
 
For death is my consort
the love of my dreams
my reason for living
the rhyme in these streams

yes , death is my mistress
ever leading me on
in diurnal distress
as I still sojourn on

would fain lose my heart
than kingdoms regain
endure it unflinching
and still wish it again

for a moment’s true rapture
for one taste of true bliss
I’d welcome The Serpent
and give heaven a miss

for a moment’s true rapture
for just one taste of bliss
would raffle my fortunes
O what madness is this?

from here to hereafter
in a Sahara of pain
where wan wraiths wild wander
there will I remain


from here to hereafter
in a Sahara of pain
what immortal communion
can such fervor sustain?

*
yes, death is my consort
my lover from yore
the song of my senses
my fatal allure

for she is my mistress
my lover serene
i faint by her footfall
she clasps me unseen

darkness abounding
night gilds in vain
silence surrounding
the songbirds are slain

the songbirds are slain
green mansions among
i weep by the wayside
my last lay is sung

she melts with the mist
and black passions are fled
but chained to her chariot
my blood wine blows red

chained to black chariots
i drag at her wheels
passions unspoken
she breaks all my seals

the blood wine flows red
i’m slowly undone
she slays like a siren
i sink with the sun

i sink with the sun
the old gods have failed
not by rapier undone
but by true love assailed

 
[© R.Kanth 2022]

 

Professor Rajani Kanth, is Author of Coda (Novel) , A Day in the Life (Novel), and Expiations (Verse)

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Love

 
(For the fragile in spirit)
 
Love hangs
like a gossamer
from a rainbow
in the sky
 
if only
words
could fly!

 
sunsets reek
of butterflies
amber leaves
look like wings
 
and I think
somewhere
nigh
a nightingale
sings
 
the day is
spread
like honey
slow seeping
from a jar
 
emphatically sunny
and things
are up to
par
 
*
 
I cannot see
your love
light
and barely
feel
the pain
 
perhaps this
summer madness
will not
come back
again?

 
*
 
Though I winter
in my
solitude
 
trying hard
not to
cry
 
and the
seasons whisper
farvel
 
fond lover
say
goodbye!
 
I remain lost
in languor
still
 
just don’t
ask
me why
 

for matters not
what I do
whether I live
or die

 
*
 

Love hangs
like a gossamer
my own
rainbow
in the sky
 
scattering my
kisses
like petalled
wings that
fly

 
[© R.Kanth 2022]

 

Professor Rajani Kanth, is Author of Coda (Novel) , A Day in the Life (Novel), and Expiations (Verse)

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The Other?

 
They hate you if
you’re clever
and they despise a fool

John Lennon
 

I can think of no more potent words to describe the ontic situation (of denigration) of the powerless( in context of class, caste, race, gender, et. al.)vis a vis the empowered.
 

*
 

To state the obvious, even within The Other, dominant groups mistreat the weaker: so there is a near endless regress of the binary across the spectrum.
 
An upper class Woman may oppress a lower class woman, despite both being the ‘oppressed’ vis a vis Males.
 
An Afro-Am , oppressed by white racism, can in turn look down upon
native Africans for being lower on the totem pole, and so on.
 
Happens all the time.
 

*
 

Putting on Modernist, ‘Progressivist’, airs does not alter that reality one whit.
 
So, the moral superiority of Victims is contextual, and temporary, only.
 
Yesterday’s victims can turn today’s oppressors, given half a chance.
 
Besides, as Colin Wilson pointed out aeons ago there is nothing an Outsider wants more than to be an Insider.
 
So , the moral gap between the Primary and the Other may not be as deep as is oft imagined.
 
Examples abound, if one looks around with care.
 
Both the historical avatars of EuroModernism (EM) – Capitalism and Socialism – have been run through with stark iniquity, oppression, and injustice.
 

Stated unhappily, truth is that Man is a beast, lest we forget.

 

*
 
And the only (near)”Utopia” ( I do NOT subscribe to that term) that exists is a communal, familial, tribal, entity that, intra-tribe, adopts pacific, affective, ties, within a matrix of co-operative mutualism.
 
It is the one locus where unpredictable male violence, the very bane of human society, is best enchained/entrapped within the healing bonds of Affective Relations.
 
This is what Women achieve(d), in that societal form: no other formula has ever worked.
 
In my parlance, (with)in that instance, the Social Economy of Affections (Tribal modes) trumps the Political Economy of Interests (EM).
 
It is, indeed, the First Condition of Civilisation: i.e., the domestication/pacification of Men.
 
The Second Condition is the Pacification (domestication) of Nature.
 
So now we should know why all utopias (of EM inspiration) fail:
male aggression in such arid domains – let’s call them, advisedly, No Woman’s Lands – razes them to the ground, in fruitless power struggles.

 
*
 

Recognition of our real, intrinsic, species traits has never been an EM forte: they prefer fantasy – kindergarten pap ? – to lull doubt and disquiet .
 
We accord instinctual behavior to our close cousins – say the chimps – but fail to apply it to ourselves.
 
This is because early EM theorists imagined that ‘MAN” was created in the image of ‘god’: Darwin’s correction came too late.
 
The conjectural ‘progressivism’ keeps us all in thrall of that powerful amphetamine called ‘hope’ , endlessly organising, marching, whispering,’yes, we can’: despite dispositive evidence to the contrary.
 
It is time we grew up: to self-realisation?
 
As Ben Franklin had it, those who subsist on hope die of starvation.
 
There is no systemic and sustainable amelioration possible within EM societies: it is always a situation of permanent struggle in a self-defined Adversarial Society.
 
Rather, we need to restructure the entire edifice on a different ontic and epistemic foundation.
That is my Basic Thesis (Farewell to Modernism, NY Peter Lang, 2017)
 
It is not that vested interests capture ‘democracy’, as is erroneously believed: it is that vested interests originally (historically) created that instrument – to serve themselves.</em>
 
*
 
One other matter.
 
I have dwelt , incessantly, on the Iniquities of EM upon the Other: but the Other, I must emphasize, is not at all innocent of a not dissimilar barbarism.
 
The West did not invent (and I hope they can stomach this slur!) violence or expropriation.
 
In the area of male savagery, East and West are entirely on par.
 
The glaring fact(or) that does separate Occidental Despotism from
its Oriental Counterpart – and this point is Vital – is that the former claimed high moral ground throughout, and despite, their latter-day despoliations.
 
That sort of bald-faced hypocrisy was notably absent amongst the latter.
 
If hypocrisy is the homage vice plays to virtue, well the Other simply wasn’t up to that high European standard.
 
Genghis , presumably, proclaimed no such wild claim(s) to historical virtue?

 
The point, I hope, is made.

 
[© R.Kanth 2022]

 

Professor Rajani Kanth, is Author of Coda (Novel) , A Day in the Life (Novel), and Expiations (Verse)

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God

 
(For the Many, who Wonder at it all )

 
Let’s assume there’s a ‘god’?

Why not?
 
The so called “science” of economics makes all manner of
(outlandish) assumptions to prove its axiomatic truisms.

So we can, surely, do no worse?
 
*
 
So, let’s assume there’s a god.

What possible purpose might IT have had to have humans evolve from the primeval slime?
 
I can think of at least 3.

Of course , that may not exhaust all possibilities.
 
*
 
It got Lonely, and needed a (semi)intelligent species to relate to (albeit invisibly).
 
Or, the Vanity motive.
It wished to have a species that could marvel at Its many glories.
Needed, in effect, sentient admirers.
 
Or, It was so plain Disgusted with the Schema of Evolution that it needed a species that could put an end to All of it, once and for all.

So it can start over.

Whence it allowed US to emerge, leaving it to our (expected) consummate turpitude to destroy all life on the planet ever so swiftly.
 

*
 
I don’t know about you, but I rather favor the last?
 
*
 
Have a look around.

There is a certain rough post-factum veracity to it, isn’t there?
 
*
 
It may be time we asked such questions before it’s all gone in
a giant plume of smoke?

I wonder.

 
[© R.Kanth 2022]

 

Professor Rajani Kanth, is Author of Coda (Novel) , A Day in the Life (Novel), and Expiations (Verse)

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Explaining The Real World, Realistically

 

(For Antara & Indrina)
 

It is said that Spencer’s idea of tragedy
was a beautiful theory slain by one single ugly fact.

Well, that fits.

EuroModernism (European Modernism) was a thing of (meretricious) beauty.
It promised Utopia.
Liberte, egalite, fraternite?
 
*
 
So, what happened?
It was overcome, negated, by realite.
 
Are you listening, Mr Fukuyama?
 
Is this still the best of all possible worlds,
Dr Pangloss?
 
*
 

In my critique of EM – the only totalising critique of the paradigms that have ruled the world under European tutelage – I explain it all.
Why it was (fore)doomed.
And how we can get out of it.

There is NO other explanation that fits ALL the facts.
Nor is there any other complete salve than the one I have proposed.

Those who still use EM slogans/agendas/narratives to get out of this mess are delusional.

As Einstein said it you can’t solve problems using the same ideas that sourced the problem.

Read that last line over one more time.

I offer a transcendent critique that sublates the entire, misconceived , baggage of the ‘enlightenment’.
 
*
 
Here (below) the links to my rendition(s).

It might yet pay to read and absorb them.

Whenever and wherever.

I warrant.

LINKS

The Last Critique

The Matrix*


Kanth, R. Farewell to Modernism, NY Peter Lang, 2017

 
[© R.Kanth 2022]

 

Professor Rajani Kanth, is Author of Coda (Novel) , A Day in the Life (Novel), and Expiations (Verse)

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