Spent yesterday trying to make Sense of Things; ended up mired knee-deep in a bayou of codswallop, up to my eyeballs in flummery and logorrhea. All is snake oil, Alice. So I decided that what is needed today is more whimsy; hence, Gertrude Stein. These are from Tender Buttons:
A FRIGHTFUL RELEASE
A bag which was left and not only taken but turned away was now found. The place was shown to be very like the last time. A piece was not exchanged, not a bit of it, a piece was left over. The rest was mismanaged.
A PURSE
A purse was not green, it was not straw color, it was hardly seen and it had a use a long use and the chain, the chain was never missing, it was not misplaced, it showed that it was open, that is all that it showed.
A MOUNTED UMBRELLA
What was the use of not leaving it there where it would hang what was the use if there was no chance of ever seeing it come there and show that it was handsome and right in the way it showed it. The lesson is to learn that it does show it, that it shows it and that nothing, that there is nothing, that there is no more to do about it and just so much more is there plenty of reason for making an exchange.
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Thanks, Gert, for putting my day in perspective. (What was the use of not leaving it there?...)
And, to cap things off, Stephen Crane:
XXI (from War is Kind)
A man said to the universe:
"Sir, I exist!"
"However," replied the universe,
"The fact has not created in me
A sense of obligation."
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Don't forget the contest: send poems about fireworks before Monday, get a free copy of The Battered Bride Overture by Mary Zeppa.
—Medusa (who can gas and flapdoodle with the best of 'em)