Howard, Zelda, and J.D.

Death is not a guy, or a cartoon
or even a Force. It's just sorta this stupid thing that
kinda happens. But we lay out these
clothes around it so we have someplace
to pin our anger. We draw pictures
with features -
eyes to spit in
a nose to bloody
a mouth to crack open and stretch wide
around pain & fear, full of teeth to
knock loose and make rattles of.
We pull a hood over it and call it names,
give it weapons so it can fight back.
So we don't feel so bad about hating it so much.
We're just putting faces on potatoes.
Like we're gonna boil, bake and
mash death. Make it easier to swallow.
But we can't eat Death and it doesn't
eat us because death is not a creature.
It's just sorta this shitty stupid fucking dumb thing that kinda happens
to everything.


...
wrote that before i knew about any of the three timely, yet still quite upsetting losses on the 27th - oddly enough. good bye to Zinn, Rubinstein, and Salinger, you (or they?) all had a rather profound impact on my life at different stages and gave a lot to this world in their turns.

Thanks a ton. You'll be missed. I'll be drinking plenty of Old Crow, Ancient Age, Old Granddad, and Early Times to you.
-andy