---
title: About the author
subtitle: (not pictured)
genre: prose

epigraph:
    content: The body that surrounds him is his, but his insides are not.

project:
    title: Stark Raving
    css: stark
    order: 19
    prev:
    - title: |
        Something about all music being performances of _4\'33\"_
        in places where other bands happen to be playing
      link: music-433
    - title: Riptide of memory
      link: riptide_memory
...

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He was born on a few separate occasions                              _green traffic ligts at night_

There was the day of his conception \                                 _a TV in front of a dumpster_
a wintery affair saved for those involved

The day he wriggled forth \
from the dark tunnel of nothing \                             _surprise photo of you at Walgreen's_
his mother's womb

The founding of his little city \
deep inside by the smal builders \                    _a pink dress in the alley behind your house_
alien as they were and still \
somehow intimately familiar

Like any city it had its ups \
and downs the fever of 1994 \                 _me buying a Reese's peanut butter cup for a child_ \
was especially devastating \                                  _[whose family couldn't afford it]_ \
but they were a hardy folk \                                    _in front of me in line at Safeway_
not much given to flight

As all things must pass the \
little city began slowly to decay \                              _trees at night their skeletons_ \
the old ones claimed the young \                                       _revealed by a camera flash_
had no respect for culture anymore

They began to die off slowly \
more quickly than being born \                            _two earthworms on pavement after a rain_
the end was coming closer

As the last breath was made \
the last accounts closed in the city                        _keys tacked to a sign in Buffalo Park_

It was given over to other builders                _man flipping a four-wheeler and walking it off_

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