Category: High Street

bon jour, daddybon jour, daddy

bon jour, man
we made something really bad

daddy, can we switch?
switch arms?
are you going to tell me?

(something inaudible whispered.)

daddy, can I have a drink?
daddy?

(Copyright 2023 by Tetman Callis.)

night sounds, summernight sounds, summer

distant whistle of the midnight freight
pulling into the rail yards downtown

burring rumbled whirr of freeway traffic
passing endlessly behind my house

murmuring voices of next-door neighbors
home from the show and not yet drunk

muffled clink of the spoon against
the bottom of my ice cream bowl

a cough from somewhere outside

a cricket from somewhere inside

the ticking clock on the bookshelf

(Published in High Street: Lawyers, Guns & Money in a Stoner’s New Mexico (2012, Outpost 19); copyright 2012, 2023 by Tetman Callis.)

fossilfossil

here is a rock
size of a small fist
a child’s fist

on the rock
size of a birthmark on a child’s hand
is a fossil

the fossil is of a sea creature
a shelled animal
it is exquisite
hold it up to your eye
you can peer into the small dark chambers of the fossil

time has been kind to the creature this once was
it looks pretty good for being two hundred million years old
give or take

i scratch these words on paper
seeking immortality

(Published in High Street: Lawyers, Guns & Money in a Stoner’s New Mexico (2012, Outpost 19); copyright 2023 by Tetman Callis.)

summer gunfiresummer gunfire

it’s only mid-may and the summer
gunfire has already begun. ten shots
in rapid succession. most likely
the emptying of a full magazine
(nine-millimeter semi-automatic
handgun). it happened not long after

nine o’clock. early in the evening
for the summer gunfire. early in
the season, too. the summer gunfire
usually doesn’t begin until
the hot madness of june. and it doesn’t
happen until after ten o’clock.

and usually not a full magazine
at a time. profligate shooter, what did
he hit? time to bring the kids in early.
keep them away from the windows. keep
everyone away from the windows.
we can sit on the floor, it’s cooler here.

(Published in High Street: Lawyers, Guns & Money in a Stoner’s New Mexico (2012, Outpost 19); copyright 2012, 2023 by Tetman Callis.)

dream of the blue minnowdream of the blue minnow

the president and his secretary for war came last night to a party at my house
barbecue and cocktails, a bonfire in the back yard

i sat with the president and his secretary for war and we talked

the president was charming
he was a funny man
his secretary for war was a sourpuss who didn’t say much

my marijuana plants were growing in a row behind the house
they were young and healthy
i told the president see it’s not such a bad thing
he was noncommittal, changed the subject, made a joke

his secretary for war, a tall gray man
said it was time to leave

we were in the back yard sitting in white plastic lawn chairs
the president stood and began pirouetting across the yard to his waiting limousine
he was a happy man, a funny man, though he had about him the air
of distancing self-protection common among the famous

his secretary for war, not dancing
followed him to the limousine

i turned to one of the other party guests and said see he’s not such a bad guy

this other party guest said no man he’s bullshitting you—look

he pointed towards my house
a small white helicopter fluttered down out of the night sky

standing on one of the helicopter’s white landing skids was a soldier
armed with a heavy machine gun, he opened fire at the back door to my house
the bullets were explosive
white flashes and sparks erupted

my house caught fire, though my marijuana plants still stood
silhouetted by the flames and explosions

the party was over
the helicopter landed
the soldier told me it was time for me to clean up all the mess

housecats stood on naked wires in front of me as though on clotheslines
i was to turn a rheostat to send current through the wires
to see how much the housecats could take and what would happen
and when would they die

i turned the rheostat
the housecats’ paws began to smolder
the housecats looked at me, their eyes were green
i broke the rules and turned the rheostat up all the way to get it over with

the housecats fell smoldering onto the wires
the wires burned through their paws, their legs, their whiskers, their jaws
and the tops of their heads
they fell from the wires
there were the smells of burning fur and flesh
it was day and my house had burned down

(Published in High Street: Lawyers, Guns & Money in a Stoner’s New Mexico (2012, Outpost 19); copyright 2023 by Tetman Callis.)

rushesrushes

i am having the most
incredible high right now

i know the validity
of any statement made
while the maker is in such a state
is suspect

but i’ve been getting some intense
rushes
off this little roachy remainder
of a joint of roach-doap—

oops—
doaped-on-a-roap

giggle me timbers
i’ll have another hit

(Published in High Street: Lawyers, Guns & Money in a Stoner’s New Mexico (2012, Outpost 19); copyright 2023 by Tetman Callis.)

High Street is publishedHigh Street is published

Old road closedOld road closed

High Street has been accepted for publication by Outpost19, “Provocative Digital Publishing” (http://outpost19.com/), so I have removed it this morning from this website.  Excerpts from it may be re-posted here soon as part of the marketing of the book, which should be available for purchase as an e-book through Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.com (and others yet to be determined) in a couple of months or so.

High Street 8 — Plus ça ChangeHigh Street 8 — Plus ça Change

“In the end, art is small beer.  The really serious things in life are earning one’s living so as not to be a parasite, and loving one’s neighbor.” — W. H. Auden

High Street 8 — “Plus ça Change” is posted today.

That is the end of High Street.  Thanks for tuning in.  Please tune in tomorrow and every day for whatever comes next.

High Street 7.4 — Freedom’s Just Another Word (fin.)High Street 7.4 — Freedom’s Just Another Word (fin.)

“There is a certain part of all of us that lives outside of time.  Perhaps we become aware of our age only at exceptional moments and most of the time we are ageless.” — Milan Kundera, Immortality (trans. Kussi)

High Street 7.4 — “Freedom’s Just Another Word” (fin.) is posted today.

(Tomorrow: High Street 8 — “Plus ça Change”)

High Street 7.3 — Freedom’s Just Another Word (cont.)High Street 7.3 — Freedom’s Just Another Word (cont.)

“Every writer is offering a true account of the activities of the mind.” — Donald Barthelme (from Not-Knowing, ed. Herzinger)

High Street 7.3 — “Freedom’s Just Another Word” (cont.) is posted today.

(Tomorrow: High Street 7.4 — “Freedom’s Just Another Word” (fin.))

High Street 7.2 — Freedom’s Just Another Word (cont.)High Street 7.2 — Freedom’s Just Another Word (cont.)

“There’s nothing so beautiful as having a very difficult problem.  It gives purpose to life.” — Donald Barthelme (from Not-Knowing, ed. Herzinger)

High Street 7.2 — “Freedom’s Just Another Word” (cont.) is posted today.

(Tomorrow: High Street 7.3 — “Freedom’s Just Another Word” (cont.))

High Street 7.1 — Freedom’s Just Another WordHigh Street 7.1 — Freedom’s Just Another Word

“If we want to go on existing we need to summon up all our strength in order to wrench ourselves off the spot where we’re stuck.” — Thomas Bernhard, Concrete

High Street 7.1 — “Freedom’s Just Another Word” is posted today.

(Tomorrow: High Street 7.2 — “Freedom’s Just Another Word” (cont.))

High Street 6.8 — Life During Wartime (fin.)High Street 6.8 — Life During Wartime (fin.)

“A writer is someone who can make a riddle out of an answer.” — Karl Kraus, quoted in Not-Knowing, ed. Herzinger

High Street 6.8 — “Life During Wartime” (fin.) is posted today.

(Tomorrow: High Street 7.1 — “Freedom’s Just Another Word”)

High Street 6.7 — Life During Wartime (cont.)High Street 6.7 — Life During Wartime (cont.)

“Mighty is the sin that arises from the destruction of one who has been offered shelter.” — Valmiki Ramayana, Kishkindha Kanda, Sarga 12

High Street 6.7 — “Life During Wartime” (cont.) is posted today.

(Tomorrow: High Street 6.8 — “Life During Wartime” (fin.))

High Street 6.6 — Life During Wartime (cont.)High Street 6.6 — Life During Wartime (cont.)

“Writing should be playing.” — Donald Barthelme (from Not-Knowing, ed. Herzinger)

High Street 6.6 — “Life During Wartime” (cont.) is posted today.

(Tomorrow: High Street 6.7 — “Life During Wartime” (cont.))

High Street 6.5 — Life During Wartime (cont.)High Street 6.5 — Life During Wartime (cont.)

“The four social classes under late capitalism are artists, rich people, the middle class, [and] poor people—this being the order of rank and precedence.  As the dominant class (morally/intellectually speaking), artists have a clear social responsibility to care for and nurture the three lower classes.  This is not by any means their primary responsibility, which is of course to art, but neither is it a negligible one.” — Donald Barthelme, “On the Level of Desire” (from Not-Knowing, ed. Herzinger)

High Street 6.5 — “Life During Wartime” (cont.) is posted today.

(Tomorrow: High Street 6.6 — “Life During Wartime” (cont.))

High Street 6.4 — Life During Wartime (cont.)High Street 6.4 — Life During Wartime (cont.)

“Art is always aimed (like a rifle, if  you wish) at the middle class.  The working class has its own culture and will have no truck with fanciness of any kind.  The upper class owns the world and thus needs know no more about the world than is necessary for its orderly exploitation.  The notion that art cuts across class boundaries to stir the hearts of hoe hand and Morgan alike is, at best, a fiction useful to the artist, his Hail Mary.  It is the poor puzzled bourgeoisie that is sufficiently uncertain, sufficiently hopeful, to pay attention to art.” — Donald Barthelme, “On the Level of Desire” (from Not-Knowing, ed. Herzinger)

High Street 6.4 — “Life During Wartime” (cont.) is posted today.

(Tomorrow: High Street 6.5 — “Life During Wartime” (cont.))

High Street 6.3 — Life During Wartime (cont.)High Street 6.3 — Life During Wartime (cont.)

“Where does desire go?  Always a traveling salesperson, desire goes hounding off into the trees, frequently, without direction from its putative master or mistress.  This is tragic and comic at the same time.  I should, in a well-ordered world, marry the intellectual hero my wicked uncle has selected for me.  Instead I run off with William of Ockham or Daffy Duck.” — Donald Barthelme, “On the Level of Desire” (from Not-Knowing, ed. Herzinger)

High Street 6.3 — “Life During Wartime” (cont.) is posted today.

(Tomorrow: High Street 6.4 — “Life During Wartime” (cont.))

High Street 6.2 — Life During Wartime (cont.)High Street 6.2 — Life During Wartime (cont.)

“Every woman artist will tell you that she exists in a universe of discourse created by men, works with a language created by men, a language suffused, colored, drenched in male desire.  That is, every woman artist is speaking a foreign language, like Beckett writing in French.  This should not be overstressed, because the languages involved have much in common—indeed, so much in common that they appear at times to be exactly congruent, like a photograph of a photograph.” — Donald Barthelme, “On the Level of Desire” (from Not-Knowing, ed. Herzinger)

High Street 6.2 — “Life During Wartime” (cont.) is posted today.

(Tomorrow: High Street 6.3 — “Life During Wartime” (cont.))

High Street 6.1 — Life During WartimeHigh Street 6.1 — Life During Wartime

“It seems to me sometimes that we never got used to being on this earth and life is just one great, ongoing, incomprehensible blunder.” — W. G. Sebald, The Rings of Saturn

High Street 6.1 — “Life During Wartime” is posted today.

(Tomorrow: High Street 6.2 — “Life During Wartime” (cont.))

High Street 5.5 — Criminal Defense (fin.)High Street 5.5 — Criminal Defense (fin.)

“Art is a commodity, art criticism is a commodity, the apple is a commodity, the air is a commodity, the ground under our feet is a commodity.  God is very much a commodity.  My emotions are a commodity, my desires the very locus of commodification.  My last illness is a commodity (twenty-two days at so much a day), my grave is a commodity (and not inexpensive).” — Donald Barthelme, “On the Level of Desire” (from Not-Knowing, ed. Herzinger)

High Street 5.5 — “Criminal Defense” (fin.) is posted today.

(Tomorrow: High Street 6.1 — “Life During Wartime”)

High Street 5.4 — Criminal Defense (cont.)High Street 5.4 — Criminal Defense (cont.)

“One of the pleasures of art is that it enables the mind to move in unanticipated directions, to make connections that may be in some sense errors but are fruitful nonetheless.” — Donald Barthelme, “Reifications” (from Not-Knowing, ed. Herzinger)

High Street 5.4 — “Criminal Defense” (cont.) is posted today.

(Tomorrow: High Street 5.5 — “Criminal Defense” (fin.))

High Street 5.3 — Criminal Defense (cont.)High Street 5.3 — Criminal Defense (cont.)

“One of the characteristics of the ideal is that it is always receding, slipping away from us, ungraspable.” — Donald Barthelme, “Nudes” (from Not-Knowing, ed. Herzinger)

High Street 5.3 — “Criminal Defense” (cont.) is posted today.

(Tomorrow: High Street 5.4 — “Criminal Defense” (cont.))

High Street 5.2 — Criminal Defense (cont.)High Street 5.2 — Criminal Defense (cont.)

“It is the vocation of the artist, the fiction writer, the playwright, and the poet, to create new language.” — Walker Percy, quoted in “A Symposium on Fiction” (from Not-Knowing, ed. Herzinger)

High Street 5.2 — “Criminal Defense” (cont.) is posted today.

(Tomorrow: High Street 5.3 — “Criminal Defense” (cont.))

High Street 5.1 — Criminal DefenseHigh Street 5.1 — Criminal Defense

“You are not obliged to complete the work, but neither are you free to evade it.” — Rabbi Tarfon, Pirkei Avot

High Street 5.1 — “Criminal Defense” is posted today.

(Tomorrow: High Street 5.2 — “Criminal Defense” (cont.))

High Street 4.9 — Radio Stars and Hemp TV (fin.)High Street 4.9 — Radio Stars and Hemp TV (fin.)

“Words get worn out, and instead of conveying meaning they act either as simulacra to conceal meaning or as if they were transparencies with no meaning.” — Walker Percy, quoted in “A Symposium on Fiction” (from Not-Knowing, ed. Herzinger)

High Street 4.9 — “Radio Stars and Hemp TV” (fin.) is posted today.

(Tomorrow: High Street 5.1 — “Criminal Defense”)

High Street 4.8 — Radio Stars and Hemp TV (cont.)High Street 4.8 — Radio Stars and Hemp TV (cont.)

“Not everything is unsayable in words, only the living truth.” — Eugene Ionesco, quoted in “A Symposium on Fiction” (from Not-Knowing, ed. Herzinger)

High Street 4.8 — “Radio Stars and Hemp TV” (cont.) is posted today.

(Tomorrow: High Street 4.9 — “Radio Stars and Hemp TV” (fin.))

High Street 4.7 — Radio Stars and Hemp TV (cont.)High Street 4.7 — Radio Stars and Hemp TV (cont.)

“It is no Disgrace to be Poor; it is simply Inconvenient.” — George Ade, from Fables in Slang

High Street 4.7 — “Radio Stars and Hemp TV” (cont.) is posted today.

(Tomorrow: High Street 4.8 — “Radio Stars and Hemp TV” (cont.))

High Street 4.6 — Radio Stars and Hemp TV (cont.)High Street 4.6 — Radio Stars and Hemp TV (cont.)

“A little thing may be perfect, but perfection is not a little thing.” — Thomas Bailey Aldrich (from The Cambridge History of English and American Literature, Vol. XVII, Ch. X, Sec. 3)

High Street 4.6 — “Radio Stars and Hemp TV” (cont.) is posted today.

(Tomorrow: High Street 4.7 — “Radio Stars and Hemp TV” (cont.))