I don’t write in a journal everyday, but I have accumulated many entries over the past 50+ years beginning in 1966. Some items evolved into longer works. Among the leftovers little pieces survived. I thought a collection of these with a piece culled from the same date in a past year would make an interesting yearbook. The consistencies and inconsistencies of mind, skipping back and forth across time, provide varied perspectives. It is difficult to remember the context of the past we’ve lived; we also make suppositions about times that predate ourselves.

The few alterations from original drafts were to improve clarity. The worst of my work is not included. There remains enough mediocrity and immaturity to make me feel humble and you feel smart. There are also moments of accidental insight and incidental humor.

Author Stephen Crane referred to his little pieces as pills…apparently they were small and somewhat hard to swallow, but good for you.


Comments Welcome!

Thursday, February 3, 2022

I saw a guy shot on TV last night

 

February 3, 1968  (I was 23)

 

I saw a guy shot on TV last night

It wasn’t Gunsmoke

Or I Spy

just the news

nothing really dramatic

I was half asleep

when a news-filmed Viet Cong kid

was led down the street

by two ARVN soldiers

to an officer

who immediately raised a pistol to the kid’s head

and fired

The kid dropped right on his ass

to the road

and the screen faded to Imperial Margarine

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