The Moment of Decision Came Easily, Far More Easily than One Would Think

"Come with me," she beckoned, tiredly.
She didn't wait but turned, indifferent, really, as to whether or not I would follow. 

The rags she wore smelled of turpentine and other toxicities.
She brought to mind an unfortunate dog of the streets whose matted fur was meshed with fecal lumps. 

I followed.

I followed, a fish among men.

Harsh Words from a Man on the Elevator

"Take no glee in the folly of invention,"
I was admonished.
"I see you have honed for yourself a talent at crafting trivialities."
I looked at the perfectly polished curves and twists of chrome filling my paper sack.
To me these pieces were like newborn kittens, and this stranger had suddenly turned them to plastic.

"You fashion trinkets--no, not even trinkets but rather isolated parts which, if assembled,
Might conjoin into trinkets.
You are so clever at this irrelevant skill.
You are so indolent when it comes to the application of your skill
To truth, art, and beautiful pain." 

He paused until the door slid open.
"Don't stop, " he murmured. "Have a nice day."

The Face

"We are the fortunate, among the fortunate few,"
the face, wizened about the eyes, insisted somberly.

It spoke to me, locking eyes to eyes, from behind the flat gleaming plane,
the silvery intersection of three and two dimensions.

"We are among those fortunate few."

Those few, I chided, who are deluded?
Sneering, I saw the face choicelessly sneering back,
trapped by the science of light.

Those few who in folly imagine themselves to be oddly authentic
in occasionally realized moments of clarity?

"We are among the few, the fortunate,"
the face admonished, earnest again, unflappable.

"We take this departure from the larger world from time to time
and use it, unlike most others,
to encounter our speaking selves in the mirrored glass."