Zuihitsu

[the mingo]

3:47 a.m.
8 degrees above zero
snowing

fell asleep sitting on the couch - woke up to whale stories - Moby Dick stuff - men at sea drifting in small boats eating each other - morbid, absurd, and really happened - I look out the window at the snow - no white whales there - and no small boats - it's amazing how fast your tracks get filled in by snow -
disappearing altogether after a very short time -

4:18 a.m.
5 degrees above zero

[saw]

In the Heart of the Sea
The Essex
and many like her
there were strict rules about cannibalism
but it was an accepted practice
18th and 19th century sailors
Isaac Cole drew the short straw
haunted the crewman
for years to come, aah to be seaman
came with the rigging and mast
it's damn cold on the east coast
today, but ain't nobody gonna eat my ass

[sasha]

I feel like such a dick. I just picked up a cheap ball for the dog from Wally's World to replace the one he destroyed. He loved it from the get-go, and led me on a merry chase through the house with it in his mouth. I had assumed it was a skin of foam around a rubber core which he'd remove in short order - but it was solid foam. Within 15 minutes he'd gouged great chunks out of it, which were strewn around the living room floor and the couch.

Fearing he'd swallow them I had to confiscate it & throw it out. His new favorite toy - into the trash.

What a dick.

So we went outside for a while to play. He'll fetch sticks, but then likes to play keep-away with them. We had a good time (yes, "we") and he seems to have forgotten all about the ball.

But I haven't. I still feel like a dick.

[the mingo]

it's damn cold on the east coast
today, but ain't nobody gonna eat my ass

cold is right, saw - 1 a.m. here 2 degrees below zero - got a good fire going but the far sections of the place are chilly - it will be colder by dawn - it's like a nuclear chain reaction in reverse - drinking tea with bourbon chaser - battery dead in the Jeep two days now - got a scrapyard up the hill got a battery from them but posts in wrong position - what the fuck winter - and fucking with vehicles in the cold? I'd rather eat rusty steel wool out of python pussy -

[the mingo]

sasha,

don't go looking for your balls at MalWart -

[the mingo]

... the internal combustion poem ...

[the mingo]

all known rebels
are narrow
and linear
in bright light

[the mingo]

Came all this way with consolations
for the incredible chain with
that incredible base root
but I prefer to look at
the record icicle or dine if possible
on tacky clouds with abstracted sails
that strange snake with the sassy knot
hoaxes us into a cellar club
with our scarecrows & sight not quite intact
there is bird beef doing deadpan onstage
I think it's a list but don't say anything
because we are far too close to
the cemetery for any kind of disgusted mass
or mistake broken into parts
I intend to accompany my reward
with any satisfying word or simple lie
that will leave me parched, jittery, absent,
and dependent on slide alone

[the mingo]

Ok the Ho Chi Mingo trail to your heart boom-boom long time love you no bullshit buy me Honda - 4 degrees below zero Nan-nan of the north here hot on the trail of ZeroMan Holy Lewinskys go bingo ! In the South they say "Carry Me to the store" meaning can you give me a lift or ride - today you can go clubbing in Saigon Ho-Ho-Ho- American Empire ! Zuihitsu Away Dream Babies ! Pow POW ! Paperback writer ! O the quiet jungle the Elephant Man fights
in the deserts these days give us a desert we'll fight in it - Boris & Natasha tango with the Merry-Cans - damn everybody's dying - duh! - starting a passage of zuihitsu is pretty easy ending one is where the moments become existential -

[stilltrucking]

Rommel Drives on Deep into Egypt
Drive on
It don't mean nothing
you are a walking talking miracle from Vietnam
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAbgmXVaOc8

the end of Zuihitsu is the end of the trail
the end of the road
I once thought I had come the end of my rope
about seventy years ago in Baltimore.

Sometimes I think about an asteroid hurtling towards earth
these are my good old days
just a Pollyanna cowboy
looking forward to wearing my new long underwear and the new soft wool balaclava ridding my bike...like to make it before dark, no shit, that bike it is life and death for me now.

[the mingo]

looking forward to wearing my new long underwear and the new soft wool balaclava ridding my bike...like to make it before dark, no shit, that bike it is life and death for me now.

5 degrees above Yew Nork zero - just tried to start a fire but the kindling is damp just about ain't a joke -
ain't ridden any bike about two weeks now part cause of the cold but more because the side of the road being slipass slush and ice and drivers still trying to go fast as they can - Jesus says my final destination is his Kingdom all well and good but don't mean I wanna find myself back broken ribs crushed in a snowbank result of american obsession with cars - I mean I wanna be round a bit longer to walk the earth & curse & talk shit aannnddd ride my bike too -

saw an older guy the other day riding his bike all dressed like an eskimo going seal hunting -

[sasha]

...ain't ridden any bike about two weeks now part cause of the cold but more because the side of the road being slipass slush and ice and drivers still trying to go fast as they can - Jesus says my final destination is his Kingdom all well and good but don't mean I wanna find myself back broken ribs crushed in a snowbank result of american obsession with cars - I mean I wanna be round a bit longer to walk the earth & curse & talk shit aannnddd ride my bike too...

I feel your pain, El Mingo

Been housebound for over a week now, and there's no end to this deep freeze in sight. Our morning walks barely get us past the mailbox when the dog starts doing this 3-legged thing, favoring one leg then another, anything to avoid putting all 4 down on the ground. I remove a glove and hold his paws to warm them enough so we can high-tail it back to the cabin. Not even a mile. Not even a half-mile. I've almost forgotten what Laurel Lake looks like. And climbing Brigham Hill won't be any fun after a 2- or 3-week layoff... fuck.

[saw]

been dripping the water
hoping the pipes haven't frozen
of course you never know til the temps
get above thirty two
and you hear this horrendous sound of water
rushing where it shouldn't be
from the splits in the copper and that's baaaad
sometimes you can use the hair dryer
to get things moving in the early stages
when you have no water, but that won't cut it
after a week in the teens when the damage may be done
i finally bought the heat wrap which works well
if you don't lose electricity....power went out for six hours couple days ago
saved by a roaring fire in the wood stove
old man winter is a heartless bastard
he cares not about your whining ways
he has an agenda....to crystallize your balls

[sasha]

It got up to a balmy 13 yesterday, so Dog and I hied down to the Birch Hill Wildlife Management Area for a stroll along New Boston Road, an unmaintained access road leading into Otter River State Forest. Snowmobiles and monster trucks have packed down the snow making it easily passable on foot, and maybe even for my aging Toyota - but we parked at the northern terminus and headed south. Can't say I ever got warm, but I never got too cold, not even my feet. My gloves are shit, though - the wind cuts right through them, so they're only marginally better than nothing. I have to ball up my fists inside them to keep frostbite at bay.

But it was still nice to be outside in the woods for an hour or so, and Kane got to run and jump and sniff and dig without the restraint of the leash. Got back to the car just as darkness started seeping in around the edges. Supper was a warming fish stew prepared while sipping spiced rum and listening to the "Selected Shorts" Christmas podcast.

The next few days aren't expecting to get out of the single digits, so I doubt we'll spend much time outdoors. Math, writing, & videos - haven't seen Jacob's Ladder in a while. Or Monty Python & the Holy Grail. Ni!

[the mingo]

Crystallized balls ? O hell where does that get fun ?

My dog only goes outside the door far enough to piss - been like that for several days - and he's a roamer

One of my grandmothers once said, referring to a town north of here up in the St.Lawrence River country "Massena? Massena is the asshole of the world!"

16 degrees below zero here
I wonder how cold it is
in the asshole of the world ?