“Is It On?” (Part One)

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My Timex reads four o’clock ante meridiem. Instead of sleeping, I’m shivering. My nose is stuffed. In my head, Eva Cassidy’s take on “Over the Rainbow” is stuck on repeat. Last night and earlier this morning Clive Churner* insisted that we read (aloud) the rather unique letter (a creative hodge-podge of thought) that he’d sent me (months ago) and critique it, section by section. Said readings and critiques have been preserved for posterity on a series of microcassette recordings, titled: “Is It On?” (The aforementioned query refers to the status of my microcassette recorder.) Clive’s letter is roughly thirty pages long, if not longer. At the risk of being overly reductive, he’s taken the people we’ve both known and events we’ve both experienced and spun them wildly out of control in silly little yarms—I mean yams—I mean yarns.

Please note that I’ve sat here coughing and gagging after—and, at times, straight through—every one of the aforementioned sentences, along with this one, and very likely each one hereafter. So, pretty much nonstop. I’m also still suffering the effects of recently poisoning myself—and hopefully many roaches—with Raider Maximum. 

Clive refers to Marie† in said letter. Having not uttered her name in several years, and having now done so, I seem to’ve opened Pandora’s Box. Memories of Marie are now stuck on repeat in my head, along with Eva Cassidy’s take on “Over the Rainbow.” But when I’m not stuck on Marie, I’m stuck on the cute girl who sat in the adjacent booth in Clarke’s on Belmont last night. I feel very old, and I’m not yet thirty.

Clive thinks he’s stumbled onto—no, rather, discovered; yes, after all, Clive is a literary pioneer—so, yes, stumbled over, or onto, a “new form” with this sort of letter writing. He’s very excited to develop it further with me. Indeed, humans must develop—themselves and their property. After all, we’re only on this planet to trash it. That’s the Grand Experiment, you see: To test the limits of Mother Earth. 

Anyhoo, Clive has written a second letter and we plan to read it aloud later today. I don’t understand why we need to critique it. Let’s just enjoy each other’s work, eh? 

28 March 2001 

*[Not his legal name and not one he chose of his own accord.] 

†[Her middle name, if memory serves.] 

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