we’re not going to do a briefcase-by-briefcase check.
we’re going to [ redacted ].
we may [ redacted ] the [ redacted ], put [ redacted ] the [ redacted ].
we don’t want to hurt business.
our [redacted] is vulnerable.
all [ redacted ]—six or seven every [redacted]—[ redacted ] the [redacted].
we’ll put an extra guard [ redacted ], change procedures.
[redacted] sets of eyes—[ redacted ] present at all times in [redacted].
have someone in your [ redacted ] at all times.
or [ redacted ].
[ redacted ] probably a soft target.
it would be kudos to bad guys [ redacted ].
major concern is [redacted].
and [ redacted ].
we don’t have [ redacted ] the [redacted].
the [redacted]—[ redacted ] a [ redacted ] the [redacted].
any determined person could [ redacted ].
[redacted] are potential targets.
we’ve activated our emergency plan.
we’re keeping our eyes open and [ redacted ].
(Copyright 2023 by Tetman Callis.)
up in the third third of the night, unable to return to sleep,
in my flannel robe i sit cross-legged on the floor in front of the television,
watching the latest war news—urban fighting and point-blank fire,
bunker-buster bombs and thousands of empty combat boots, firefights filmed
in unearthly green light, dead and wounded in uncounted numbers, palaces littered
with shattered marble and broken glass, rubble and fire and ceaseless black smoke
—all interspersed with ads for situation comedies, sleek and shiny high-powered cars,
and medicines that should do the trick (though there may be unfortunate side-effects).
i am advised to consult with my doctor, take out a low-interest loan, and stay tuned.
(Published in Folly, April 2010; copyright 2023 by Tetman Callis.)
“Men scorched by mental grief, or suffering under bodily pain, feel as much refreshed in the companionship of their wives as a perspiring person in a cool bath. No man, even in anger, should ever do anything that is disagreeable to his wife, seeing that happiness, joy, and virtue, everything dependeth on the wife. A wife is the sacred field in which the husband is born himself.” – The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, Vol. I, Sambhava Parva of the Adi Parva, trans. Pratap Chandra Roy