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The Exquisite Corpse - A Journal of Letters and Life
Edited by Andrei Codrescu
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the corpse reads classics letters the book of revelations and epiphanies
the making and unmaking of person
The Book of (Demotic) Revelations and (Common-sense) Epiphanies

Three
by Rebecca Weaver


Late in the booth with all that traffic


Couldn't be a date I was listening to late in the booth with all that traffic going by

"Life is hard so there must be a heaven, life is hard so we must be in purgatory or something, ha ha"

Then he compliments her says what I can't hear but then says - he much younger than what she looked like even though he paid for her sandwich and later she gave him a ride home - she's not going to go to hell

"Thank you. You're so nice. I just try to help people with life's struggles like with friends of mine who live together and I really think, well, living that close, there's bound to be disagreements"

He murmurs yes and from what I can tell with my back to them and only their voices over the booth besides what I saw walking in, he's Asian and hasn't been here long

maybe she's an evangelist taking him out for sandwiches late and that's why she's so humble yet talking about God in that voice, maybe he'll think she's cool in the way americans think that people from other cultures think americans are cool, taking him out late like that

or really he's going home with her and they do know each other well they were just pretending for mine and the waitresses' benefit to pose as evangelist and soul in a diner near all that traffic and the buses so people wouldn't think about why he's with a woman like that or she's with a man like that, that we'll all think she's trying to save his soul and he's trying to get one

or they just met at work and he's being bewildered and she's being nice knowing that he doesn't know anyone and she never, never does this, go out late on a weeknight to a diner near all that traffic with men and talk about God and relationships and eat sandwiches and lean over when the waitress goes by and ask him to repeat what he said.



around, missionarying

City summer, walking
and you said
not that I'm for
or against them
but it's comforting to me
to see the Mormons
around, missionarying
in their suits
especially when it's this hot

Yes, I replied,
I don't know why
but a sweating city
doesn't seem a city
without them

and you said
(looking up
to tops of buildings)
something about the need
for a need of God -



They must be

No, I'm not
saying
they don't have cities
only that
they must be
baffled
by ours
as you said once
walking to the bus stop talking about your ex
"I am baffled
by this city"

All I'm saying
is how like I told you
she asked me to show her
how to operate the coin laundry
in the basement
they have those beautiful
american
curtains

and what they must think
of the billboards

they must be
baffled
so many many coin slots
for all of it
dials and buttons

no, I am not saying
they don't have technology
or buses
there as don't
the tribe you told me
about visiting

we walking concrete /
asphalt / traffic light footed.

 

 

 

 

home archives submit black market comrads hot sites search ec chair peotick kultur anti-amthropomorphism
new economics of late capitalism gallery zounds the making and unmaking of person
diaries and memoirs translation and her retinue
the book of revelations and epiphanies working class sweat
the making and unmaking of person the corpse reads classics letters

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