considering the cannonade

"Considering the Cannonade," January 30, 2022 (#30)

original title

Doghouse Roses: Stories by Steve Earle (2002)

Bark: Stories by Lorrie Moore (2014)

two lines from The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon (2003)

one line from The Power of the Dog (2021)

one line from Anton Chekhov's "The Lady with the Pet Dog" (1899)

one line from CAMO Rescue's Welcome Home Packet (2022)

last line from Moonstruck (1987)

Considering the Cannonade

Never in my life did I come so far down the county road. Never past

a demeanor of arrangement and premeditation that gussied up something

then plopped down heavily in the center of a concrete bench and set up

the benefit of the doubt—all those paradoxical clichés of supposed generosity,

they were the real outlaws. Genuinely bad motherfuckers who could

give a toe or two to be thirty-five again. She would give three

almost in unison, forming a perfect little rank across the front of the

science lesson of some sort—the emotional limits of the Homo sapiens

can't go directly from point A to point B like other people.

That was just a regional fact. They switched off their engines. None of the

little village in hot, arid Chihuahua was not exactly a mecca for

strangers because I do not like people I have never met before. They are

completely ignorant of American history and

no doubt something that was a complete mirage.

The Old Lady and The Old Gent are seated in an elegant first class carriage.

There is a village in the distance which has 31 visible houses and

there was a golden streak from the moon upon it.

Everyone can be happy and cut the stress.

I can't sleep anymore. It's too much like death.

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1-30-22

1-30-22

portrait of Anton Chekhov from "Three Journeys" by Janet Malcolm, October 21, 2001
Illustration by Riccardo Vecchio

1-30-22

portrait of Clifton Chenier on the Blues Hound site

still from Pet Sematary (1989)

still from Moonstruck (1987)