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An O:JA&L Writer’s Portfolio
Featured Writer Jim Meirose
AWK, TINKER
To explore more of Jim Meirose’s work,
view or download Experimental Storytelling: The Timeline of Complementary Realities
the free PDF in the 2023 O:JA&L Chapbook Series.
O.
What?
{ Ooze }
Mildly walking across.
What goes in in that great silent place o’er there you think, Tinker?
What? Why there’s—it says Town Meeting Hall right there.
Huh? I can’t—see where you—see that? Where the hell you see that, Tinker? Can you help me out, there? Where you seein’ that?
Right there {o’er there {blank}}
That—in that board over there>
Right yes right, yes right there {o’er there {blank}}
How’s that a sign? It is saying nothing.
Read the writing.
What writing?
There = {o’er there {blank}} = it says Town Council Meeting Hall right there.
Huh? I can’t—see where you—see that? Where the hell you see that, Tinker? Can you help me out, there? Where you seein’ that? {Question Mark. Find out what they know}
Ah, huh hey. You don’t want to see. Sorry.
Uh, uck? Don’t want to see, Tinker? Well, yes. I do want to see. I want to see very much, Someday, I want to see things as well as you see them, Tinker. Until, then though, well—I need you very much. I very much like to spend my days with you, Tinker. I learn much from you like—what “this” is and “that”, and even “those theirs and ours”! Yesso! And ours! You might wonder Tinker why I don’t even know our very owns, Tinker, but—I need to stay with you Tinker. I really, really do.
By then they’d strolled clear past the big dark spaniel place whose nature and purpose had been so vital to know, b’ now all forgotten in the rush of keep going keep trying keep in wanting to know and to learn and to be someday something different than what we all are right now { beep beep } buh herey’s hell { here down’s un ‘ur watch } th’ times to be West and hey we’re the win ‘cause we’ll steptoe the loam off that way down there land / sezz wide lands beyond / and you won’t ( oh say there ) the lucky winner though, at all that may be, is.
{ heavy }
Lap Land ™. Quizzo.
Party!
Party! Party!
Ah!
Wonderful!
Me? Ah gone solo.
(-)
Tinker? Tinker?
About the writer:
Jim Meirose‘s short fiction has appeared in leading journals, and his novels include Sunday Dinner with Father Dwyer (Optional Books), Understanding Franklin Thompson (JEF), Le Overgivers au Club de la Résurrection (Mannequin Haus), and No and Maybe – Maybe and No (Pski’s Porch).
Image: Self Portrait in Clown Costume by August Macke (1887-1914). No medium specified. No size specified. Circa 1910s. Public domain.
OJAL Art Incorporated, publishing since 2017 as OPEN: Journal of Arts & Letters (O:JA&L) and its imprints Buttonhook Press and HOT BUTTON PRESS Contemporary Issues, supports writers and artists worldwide.
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