"He had never sought out any contact with people except the ideal one of audience and poet, but it sometimes happened that the sexual hunger of strangers would be visited on him."

- Tennessee Williams, "The Poet"

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by Luke Edwards

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Twenty-Four

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"Sic" (usually in parentheses and always used when a quote is being
cited) means the original document contained the error that you are
seeing faithfully reproduced. "Sic" means that the mistake is on purpose
this time (but was probably a mistake in the original).
It's a favorite of mine, I should know more about it, like the source,
but I'm unsure. I'm almost sure it's Latin, though.
 
___

The story I forget his name. He came into Comfy Kitchen the first time a long time ago. I thought it was love. I loved his hat and he read newspapers. Five months later he was in my modern poetry class at Spokane State and he disagreed with Ginsberg. His wife is often with him this past year and they have a four year old and I got so shook up I put fries in the basket, one fell in the grease and Janine said it would help

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i.e., "in ether words"

Ed doesn't know he knows a final element of the equation for becoming a visionary. Edward's forgotten (FBM) he knew long before he read about Blake's "Ah! Sunflower"¹ a second time.

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Dennis leaves

I go to the RAMJAC till

First.

"Two of the coffees."

"Pen." I retrieve.

Enter John: "Salom."

"Three." "Right."

73 cents. Three RAMJAC dollars.

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e.g., "for 'eg'-zample"

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Deb has a hamburger. Sandy sits awhile. Janine takes an extra long break. Dennis and Gary have brought in a tiny tv. I bought a lottery ticket from Bob. His wife is Penny, another employee here. Debbie gains "wait" (she's pregnant). Cindy has gone home a long time ago. The White Lodge is where I've seen Dennis and Gary but never togeter. I watch from the parking lot. No one watches me.

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This is the "episode" that most needs rewriting. It's fallen to a wayside and been ignored.

I am out of words and letters. "My vocabulary did this to me," Spicer's dying words, were presaged by Rimbaud, I know. I know only bouleversements, correspondences.¹ Having a vocabulary did this to me. 

"The drug causes paralysis," Bill Kurtis adds. "Cold Case Files" is on again. Jim Post is sleeping. I think of Ginsberg and Burroughs' search for Yage, a magical drug akin to the city of Eldorado.

Ed doesn't know he knows how to murder by any method other than hit and run. The drug causes paralysis.

I'm disobeying Edward's caution about including, hither-thither, details from outside oneself as they happen and include them in this narrative: it's the secret. It's why I was the one writing the Gnome Notebook and not he, Edward Lacie.

"Back in his youthful days," the next guy on tv says and that's exactly it too! By pulling the exterior into the collage (Cubism), the artist adds "chance" which is a strong element of everyday reality.

"When approached he claimed he didn't know anybody by that name." It doesn't always work. Or does it?

"That's me." 

The criminal has been caught. There has to be more to say about Cubism but I can't think of what it could be.

I'm conjured by a continuous being in the present. It's always now, a new title.

Labor Day? Memorial Day? Either way, I'm not being paid.

It helps to have a photographic memory. Experience with a camera works³ to capture an essense, the essense of time.

"He joined the literary society in college," Bill Curtis explains, giving us the life story of the criminal du jour.

I'm anxious to see the episode they'll do on Edward Lacie, killer and kidnapper, author of and promoter of degenerate art.

Jim Post sleeps and Edward Lacie studies the handouts for today's murder lesson. I know Greg Baysans isn't safe, but is Jim Post? I'd never thought of him being in danger before. I'll have to warn him next time we talk.

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The story Ron is a regular

at Comfy Kitchen. He lives in the closet.

The story of the owner of Comfy Kitchen

(whose name is also Ron) is

a different story than the story of the building's

owner and how did my Dad know about the dogs?

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Now I'm getting carried away. There's no reason Jim Post would be in danger. His demise would not help Edward's financial situation at all. Jim Post snores loudly.

But the fact that Edward has killed once is enough to make him unpredictable.

Now is unpredictable.