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it brings nothing so regularly
as pleas for money from both noble and ignoble organizations.
they do not know that i have next to none to give. though i will
renew for Amnesty International. just because.
it brings a box from amazon.com
that today contains Bruccoli's F. Scott Fitzgerald's The
Great Gatsby: A Literary Reference - 321 pages of everything
Gatsby. some day soon it will bring The Velvet Underground
1969 Live. i do have a few bucks for these extravagances.
and i know i have no right to them.
it brings a wedding invitation
to the wedding of my nephew. i love him and wish them the best,
but i will not be going to the wedding. because.
it brings catalogues for all
kinds of elitist book crap from Levingers, and great remainders
from Daedalus, and impossibilities from Club Mac. this present
old shoe of a G3 333MHz has been holding up its bulbous blueberry
butt for some time now. just a little over three years. it's
way passe´. but i've grown accustomed to its face.
it brings magazines. it brings
Double Take and Film Comment and The American Poetry Review and
The Threepenny Review. but it has not yet brought my first issue
of the Oxford American which has been a long time coming.
it brings a jury summons from
the 19th Judicial Circuit Court of Illinois at Lake County Illinois
for the week of July 29, 2002. what did i do to deserve this?
isn't that just the most typical reaction to this news? first
response: no, i gotta get out of this somehow. then, no, there's
no way to get out of this. then, this is the worst possible time.
then, no it's not, you moron. it's summer, yr doing nothing nothing
and more nothing. it's actually perfect timing. then, how the
hell do i get to waukegan i've never been to waukegan. then,
i hope i get some really cool trial that lasts less than a week
and i get to mete out justice to some really bad guy who gets
my number and sends his cronies out for some payback and i end
up lying dead as the mulch beneath the petals of my mostly pathetic
roses. civic duty.
it brings a driver's license
renewal form which doesn't say anything about renewing through
the mail like last time and requires that i travel to an actual
drivers license outpost to pay ten bucks, prove that i need glasses,
and get another bad picture took.
it brings news from my carmelite
brothers. sometimes. but nothing much lately.
it brings a reminder from the
opthalmologist that it's time for a look-see, a reminder from
the jiffy lube that it's time for an oil change, and soon the
vet.
it almost never brings personal
greetings from friends. at certain times it brings christmas
and birthday wishes from some. and that is fine and good and
much more than i deserve. and then there's my excellent sister-in-law
who's relentless in commemorating valentines, halloween and st.
patrick's day and easter and thanksgiving and what all with these
nice cards that no longer contain that shiney fallout in the
shape of tiny shamrocks or hearts or half-eaten turkey legs.
and now the fee goes up to .37,
of which i have nothing to say. i will pay it. and so will you.
just because.
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