Friday, September 21, 2018

181. “Did you open my gift?” } “I’m saving it.”



“When I start to moralize, I remember shortcomings [ — ] and the urge dies” (from a postcard sent to me by Bella Bravo, Aug. 2017.

Three Crises from the trees arrived last week. Three new stories by Bella Bravo. I enjoyed especially the middle story “Concussion” in which a young lawyer protests police violence in a concussed state: “The concussion separated ideas as I cohered them.” A helpful store clerk participates (this is a favorite scene):
The old clerk ran past me and sent $350 in standard rolls of U.S. coin bound together with electrical tape through a floor-to-ceiling bank window—I wasn’t surprised when the crystalline structure of a single pane slipped and scattered into many symbols of the window to the sidewalk….
I don’t know if it’s possible to obtain copies of Bravo’s chapbook—her website makes no mention of Three Crises, nor does MonsterHouse Press (I assume the “W The Trees” is upside-down “M”-ster House Press).

Also, the front matter reads “First Edition of 23.” 23 editions? 23 copies? A mystery.

However—if possible, obtain. Three Crises extends her first (excellent) collection the unpositioned parts. Read this prose:
Traffic air hissed past. Sulfur sewered from the curb. Silent vibrations connected my muscles, the soft knit tissue caught in chemical fight, still strained to sustain their structural integrity against a nearly overwhelming force, against asphalt, against time.
Read this prose.

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