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THE GOLDEN BUREAUCRAT, to this day, has saved 1,423 lives. What is the count for other heroes? We do not know. But we know how many deaths they have caused.Black Widow: 48Hulk: 65Batman: 75Wolverine: 101Thor: 393Captain America: 14,098Superman: UncountableBut THE GOLDEN BUREAUCRAT is an inverted hero. His secret identity doesContinue Reading

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I have to admit to myself and therefore also to you: I am a baby inside. I work in an office. I have no illusions. But after punching out, after uncinching that tie, after sliding those slacks down the length of my regrettably adult-length shaven legs, I am nothing, ifContinue Reading

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There was no delay in my work. The lathe machines were pumping. I could not get them to stop, no matter how much I begged them. There had never been such demand.  The machines of our street pumped into the night. The air above the tarmac was a shimmering metalContinue Reading

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I was awoken in the morning by the great boy detective, banging on the corrugated garage cover I called my front door. I put on my hat and rolled the door up to the ceiling.  ‘What time is it?’ I said. He handed me a vanilla ice cream. ‘We’ve gotContinue Reading

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The great boy detective had eyes like a snake and skin like a worm. I approached him in an alley, under the lines and lines of washing.  He was staring up at an air-conditioning unit, which was barely holding on under the window. ‘I don’t trust machines,’ he said. ‘NorContinue Reading

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The Deer I They would fire on three.  Red leaves, yellow leaves, green leaves. The shot—like the birth of his son. The leaves.  The animal. The son cowered in the bushes.  The father took the son’s gun and counted. One through six bullets. The son had not fired the gun. Continue Reading

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My Father My father is an outsider. One day he wandered into the neighborhood.  This is hard, to a degree, because he is likable, and I am not. He goes around to everyone’s house and you can always hear his name. I stay inside. My mother stays inside. My motherContinue Reading

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There are two factories on separate hills.The hills enclose a little village.The people live in tall grass. They live in huts made of grass.Their children play in the grass.The grass waves and the factories watch it. Factory representatives drift through the grass—our product isvery good, very very good.Some children areContinue Reading

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There is a culture where, when the men know it’s time to die, climb trees.They hope, upon death, to drop from the tree and explode on the ground.The higher they fall the further spreads their progeny. The job in boyhood is to identify your father.Sons of honorable fathers must identifyContinue Reading

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The fist climbs into a town. The fist climbs into a canyon. Thefist fits inside a cave beside a waterfall.The boy and the girl were making love in the small lake whenthe hand came through the waterfall. It was the size of a delivery truck. The waterfall split in twoContinue Reading