Okay, so my computer crashed AGAIN. And I'll be working intermittently from a public computer AGAIN. I better win a million dollars reeeeeeeally soon. I guess I'd have to buy a ticket first. Meh. Well, now that have no cable and no computer, I've been doing a lot of reading lately. I just finished 1984, and now I'm digging in to Kurt Vonnegat's(sp?) Slaughterhouse-five. Oh. And I went to the peeler's on Sunday. Mother's Day. First time I've ever been. To female ones anyhow. Actual, professional, get paid for it ones. Some of them were staggeringly athletic. Now I know what you've been on about, js. ha ha! Anyway, more on that some other day. I wrote a poem about it, but it needs refining. Here's something else in the meantime...

ORWELLIAN DREAM

I had a dream
that I was drugged with doublethink.
I was on fire
and paralyzed.
I strained to wave my sluggish arm
around my face
and still I could not see the watch to check the time.
The oil in my scent difuser
overflowed in a boiling frenzy
round the room and stained the pages,
fusing shut each hard-won book
I'd ever dared to read,
and still I could not move.

Still I looked on
bodiless,
a hovering consciousness
from a corner of the spattered room.
And the sound of breaking water
disturbed my mind again
and the coin was overturned
trading light and shadow
like oil moving through vinegar
and still my limbs
lay heavy as a holocaust.

I swear it was no daydream.
And the room was the same:
the futility complete,
when I opened my eyes
and checked the time
but the room filled with the lulling sounds of the world outside
and my books were dry.