Michael Kindt's Blog, page 153
January 31, 2015
I decided to write a poem. I had never written a poem before, but that's what people did when they were sad, wasn't it? Write poems?
I had never read a happy poem, I knew that. Of all the millions of poems written since the onset of the Industrial Age and the subsequent birth of the Modern World, only six have been happy. Six little happy poems, all in a row, unsung, unloved, unread. No one likes a happy poem.
On the wobbly desk was a small notebook and a blue pen. I took these to the bed and wrote, Sleeping lightly like a fragile fallen leaf sits in a hole between breezes these days. Then I tore the sheet out of the notebook, crumpled it up, and threw it in the trash with the Gideon Bible. I went back to the bed and got the notebook and pen, and threw those in the trash, too. In the drawer of the wobbly desk was a phonebook, which I threw in the trash.
Bored, well-rested, and in the middle of the night, I considered the ridiculous and ancient tv for the second time. I decided as I looked at it that I would never watch it or another tv again. The decision felt momentous to me, like I was changing my life. I imagined that, after sufficient time, my brain would change, that the veil would fall from my eyes and I would be able to see things as they really are. Television is chewing gum for the mind. Whatever would it do with itself with nothing to chew on?
I went through the clothes she packed me and found a pair of socks I never wore. They were long, almost hose, coming up to my knees. They were stupid socks and I never wore them and they were always way in the back of my drawer. Why did she pack these? I wondered, and threw them in the trash with the poem I didn’t write and everything else. She packed me basic toiletries, but the charger for my phone wasn’t there. At the very bottom of the second gym bag, underneath everything else, she put a little cross-stitch bib she’d been working on for the baby. It was unfinished, obviously, and brought back to me in a flood all of her adorable nesting, not only her cross-stitching, but her baby-proofing plans, the different cans of paint for the nursery she never got to open.
We were going to name him Raymond Douglas, after our fathers, even though we didn’t yet know the sex. They both left us when we were little, like most dads do these days, but we were going to name him that anyway. They had been divorced and cast aside, turned into child support and weekend babysitters, semi-parents, but we really wanted to name him that anyway.
Raymond Douglas. He made it just ten weeks, then turned to blood and pain.
gratuitous picture of myself
gratuitous picture of myself
January 30, 2015
"If it ain’t broke, let’s fix it anyway!"
- Tumblr Staff
After a twelve hour nap, I considered the ridiculous and ancient tv that was bolted to the wall, presumably to thwart dastardly tv thieves.
It was all I could do to keep myself from yanking it down anyway, throwing it in the backseat of my car, and tearing out of there, cackling maniacally. The damn thing didn’t even have a remote and I had to change the channel by hand, just as my forefathers did. It was an instance where retro was a colossal pain in the ass rather than kitschy, and I shut it off after about fifteen minutes.
I reflected on how I was starving. It had been twenty hours since I last ate.
Starving. No one in this country is starving.
"Hey, did you hear about Kyle?"
"No, what happened?"
"He fucking starved to death, man."
I laughed at the scenario, at the name ‘Kyle’, and almost felt good. I’ll eat tomorrow, I decided, or the day after.
I considered the classifieds and saw that there were around fifteen places in my price range that I couldn’t afford to rent. The cheapest was a studio at $625 a month. With the deposit I would need over $1,200 to move in and I had $585 to last me two weeks. If only I wasn’t so fucking impulsive and had saved. I’d been wanting to leave her for months. I made anywhere from $675 to $725 every two weeks, depending on hours. I could have afforded any of these little studio or one bedroom apartments, just not right now when I needed it.
Hi, I’m Ned. I’m the working poor. You’ve probably seen me at Walmart buying cheap Chinese crap to distract me as I edge ever closer to oblivion. I may be the working poor, but at least I’m working, goddamn it. At least I’m doing that.
I went deeper into the classifieds and found a guy trying to unload his Coca-Cola memorabilia collection. He wanted $1,800 for the whole shebang. It included signs, posters, vintage this, vintage that. It was a very large collection, he said, and in excellent condition.
This man was not the working poor. This man was bored out his fucking mind.
Maybe, though, he just recently became poor. Maybe lottery tickets got him or the slots or some other form of socialized gambling. Maybe this was why he was selling his stupid collection. Maybe it was meth or booze or living beyond his means to impress his neighbors. Maybe he got laid off from his job installing those little plastic tips on the ends of shoelaces. Whatever. I felt sorry for him. The poor bastard had to sell his painstaking pile of various Coke crap.
I flipped the page and saw a list of storage units for rent and, suddenly, knew what to do.
(COMPLETE WITH RED KNOB)
(COMPLETE WITH RED KNOB)
Four middle schoolers face charges after ‘sex...
Four middle schoolers face charges after ‘sex party’
WISCONSIN—Four middle school students in Wisconsin have been arrested and are facing sexual assault charges after they recorded their ‘sex party’ on their phones.
According to ABC affiliate WISN, police have recommended the students—whose exact ages are unknown, but who are likely between the ages of 12 and 14—be charged with first- and second-degree assault of a minor (i.e., each other).
The ‘sex party’ was allegedly held at the home of a classmate in Brown Deer, Wisconsin, during Christmas break. School staff called police to Brown Deer Middle School after a student reported the ‘sex party’ to a teacher.
Police eventually arrested four students. Brown Deer Police Chief Michael Kass said the videos of the alleged sexual assaults were not posted on social media.
"We’re trying to send a clear message that this type of behavior isn’t going to be condoned by law enforcement, nor by school officials, nor should it be condoned by parents. We’re talking about kids that are middle-school age," Kass said regarding his recommendation to charge the children.
He added that police completed their investigation and do not believe adults were involved. Kass said he does not know whether the middle school students will, in fact, be charged by the D.A.
"We live in an age when free, endless pornography is piped directly into our homes and onto our handheld devices. It is instantly accessible to all, at no charge whatsoever, and to anyone of any age. There is simply no excuse for children to be having sex parties when such an outlet for release exists."
