ZooK
The place where between our lives on this earth we go back to mingle with other souls waiting to be born. All these weirdos and me...getting a little better every day right in the middle of them. I had never known, I had never even imagined for a heartbeat that there might be a place in this world for people like us.
I came face to face with the great beast.
Picture yer phobia, mebbe its snakes or wide open spaces or the gamma rays from microwaves or Everything***1***and imagine meeting it head on, only in a smaller form. Yer standing there, at work, cutting 150 inch pieces of siding on a long slab of double plywood specially grooved and pieced to suit the circular saw sans blade guard, held up by two ancient aluminum saw horses (one of which has a gouge the exact size of a blade from 4 summers ago when the saw kicked back and almost severed yer leg at the femur). Picture a raccoon seemingly falling out of the sky, less than 10 cubits***2***away from you.
See that it is hobbled and abandoned, its back rear leg moving at a sick angle. See that it is no bigger than yer two hands put together.
Picture seeing this, and freaking out because you HATE***3***Raccoons, and then, slowly, as it moves in perfect circles around and across the yard, falling every few feet and flipping on its back, getting up and repeating like Sisyphus***4*** until it finally lays down in the grass to die (you think) and you start to feel terrible for the poor thing, the cute (!!!) little thing not much different from a little puppy, and you realize yer close to feeling sad, and it gets back up and you are sad, wishing it would give up like its mother obviously did on it.
And then it wanders close to you, and fear overcomes you again, not for yerself but for the baby cuz yer boss is next to you and he's not one bit impresed or afraid and laughed when you suggested calling animal control, and wants to kill the varmit so it doesn't get into his garbage or fight with his dog someday down the line***4***. And he picks up a 12 inch piece of scrap aluminum as you turn to hear David Gray on the radio and when you glance back he's a foot away from the little thing and only after you hear the strangely large quality of sound the 'coon makes do you realize he just hit the thing square in the head, trying to scare it away more than kill it***6***and the little thing just gets up and circles and circles until finally it finds its way into a trap near the house set for squirrels.
And you expect it to thrash and cry in this trap, but when you come back an hour later its asleep, its body limp and heart beating slowly through its thin frame. And the man who owns the house wouldn't hurt a fly, and he takes it himself to animal control where they'll either heal it or kill it, but at least they'll do it quick and it won't die on its own in the woods or in the yard.
And yer not afraid anymore, not so much.
The next five songs on yer radio in a perfect world would be: "heartattack and vine" by tom waits; "mine and yours" by david mead; "the audio pool" by the album leaf; "don't be sad" by whiskeytown; and "our weekend starts on wednesday" by hey mercedes***7***
In the stereo: Cubs 1-brewlosers1
(i was supposed to be there, instead I'm here having worked a half day and waiting for my brother to come by so we can eat some Jakes pizza and then go out and see people we don't want to see by people we don't want to know. Booo. Maybe we'll see Scooter?!!?@?@?!@?!?)
***1***Dirty Panaphobe.
***2***The length from yer elbow to the tip of yer middle finger.
***3***We hate what we fear.
***4***Know yer mythology? He was banished to Hades and cursed to push a large boulder up a huge hill only to have it fall back down again with him behind it, forever and ever and ever, God Damn.
***5***Did you know raccoons win 90-95% of all fights with domesticated animals...might want to keep Lucky on a leash.
***6***You hope, but don't really believe.
***7***did I tell you that I was listening to WXRT and the deejay says "wouldn't it be great if our weekends started on wednesday" and I started singing the chorus again even though I only know those words and it becomes one long "our weekend starts on wed...nes..day".
The place where between our lives on this earth we go back to mingle with other souls waiting to be born. All these weirdos and me...getting a little better every day right in the middle of them. I had never known, I had never even imagined for a heartbeat that there might be a place in this world for people like us.
I came face to face with the great beast.
Picture yer phobia, mebbe its snakes or wide open spaces or the gamma rays from microwaves or Everything***1***and imagine meeting it head on, only in a smaller form. Yer standing there, at work, cutting 150 inch pieces of siding on a long slab of double plywood specially grooved and pieced to suit the circular saw sans blade guard, held up by two ancient aluminum saw horses (one of which has a gouge the exact size of a blade from 4 summers ago when the saw kicked back and almost severed yer leg at the femur). Picture a raccoon seemingly falling out of the sky, less than 10 cubits***2***away from you.
See that it is hobbled and abandoned, its back rear leg moving at a sick angle. See that it is no bigger than yer two hands put together.
Picture seeing this, and freaking out because you HATE***3***Raccoons, and then, slowly, as it moves in perfect circles around and across the yard, falling every few feet and flipping on its back, getting up and repeating like Sisyphus***4*** until it finally lays down in the grass to die (you think) and you start to feel terrible for the poor thing, the cute (!!!) little thing not much different from a little puppy, and you realize yer close to feeling sad, and it gets back up and you are sad, wishing it would give up like its mother obviously did on it.
And then it wanders close to you, and fear overcomes you again, not for yerself but for the baby cuz yer boss is next to you and he's not one bit impresed or afraid and laughed when you suggested calling animal control, and wants to kill the varmit so it doesn't get into his garbage or fight with his dog someday down the line***4***. And he picks up a 12 inch piece of scrap aluminum as you turn to hear David Gray on the radio and when you glance back he's a foot away from the little thing and only after you hear the strangely large quality of sound the 'coon makes do you realize he just hit the thing square in the head, trying to scare it away more than kill it***6***and the little thing just gets up and circles and circles until finally it finds its way into a trap near the house set for squirrels.
And you expect it to thrash and cry in this trap, but when you come back an hour later its asleep, its body limp and heart beating slowly through its thin frame. And the man who owns the house wouldn't hurt a fly, and he takes it himself to animal control where they'll either heal it or kill it, but at least they'll do it quick and it won't die on its own in the woods or in the yard.
And yer not afraid anymore, not so much.
The next five songs on yer radio in a perfect world would be: "heartattack and vine" by tom waits; "mine and yours" by david mead; "the audio pool" by the album leaf; "don't be sad" by whiskeytown; and "our weekend starts on wednesday" by hey mercedes***7***
In the stereo: Cubs 1-brewlosers1
(i was supposed to be there, instead I'm here having worked a half day and waiting for my brother to come by so we can eat some Jakes pizza and then go out and see people we don't want to see by people we don't want to know. Booo. Maybe we'll see Scooter?!!?@?@?!@?!?)
***1***Dirty Panaphobe.
***2***The length from yer elbow to the tip of yer middle finger.
***3***We hate what we fear.
***4***Know yer mythology? He was banished to Hades and cursed to push a large boulder up a huge hill only to have it fall back down again with him behind it, forever and ever and ever, God Damn.
***5***Did you know raccoons win 90-95% of all fights with domesticated animals...might want to keep Lucky on a leash.
***6***You hope, but don't really believe.
***7***did I tell you that I was listening to WXRT and the deejay says "wouldn't it be great if our weekends started on wednesday" and I started singing the chorus again even though I only know those words and it becomes one long "our weekend starts on wed...nes..day".
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