{"id":34066,"date":"2025-04-28T16:50:43","date_gmt":"2025-04-28T20:50:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/100Billion\/?p=34066"},"modified":"2025-09-12T17:47:24","modified_gmt":"2025-09-12T21:47:24","slug":"not-ready-for-the-paris-review-13-17","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/100Billion\/2025\/04\/not-ready-for-the-paris-review-13-17\/","title":{"rendered":"Not Ready for the Paris Review: 13-17"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

13: Details of Wealth<\/h2>\n

The elaborate salad<\/p>\n

in the petite bowl<\/p>\n

with pepper flake<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The worn pattern<\/p>\n

on the kitchen tiles<\/p>\n

where drippings fell<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The gold-rimmed glass<\/p>\n

favored by the master<\/p>\n

has sustained a chip<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The wooden pedestal<\/p>\n

and the black telephone<\/p>\n

that conveys her wishes<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The pendulum clock<\/p>\n

beneath Father’s portrait<\/p>\n

strikes cardinal tones<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The empty custard cup<\/p>\n

is allowed to linger<\/p>\n

a moment but no more<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The clouds of\u00a0\u00a0fortune<\/p>\n

bestow argent rains<\/p>\n

upon the privileged<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

14: Dylan Song<\/h2>\n

Dylan walks into a bar<\/p>\n

because he’s looking for some comfort<\/p>\n

His ex hung up the phone again<\/p>\n

without pretending to be friendly<\/p>\n

and now Dylan does his finger-wave<\/p>\n

Man, I know you see me!<\/p>\n

But the barman looks right past him<\/p>\n

to the woman in the outfit<\/p>\n

that was way too short for Tuesday…<\/p>\n

So Dylan waits and waits and then<\/p>\n

storms out of that dank place<\/p>\n

Just another slap in the face from Life<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

He drives back home as sirens play<\/p>\n

the notes of a nearby incident<\/p>\n

but Dylan can’t hear anything<\/p>\n

than the pain of his own instrument<\/p>\n

It’s no wonder that she left me!<\/p>\n

is the thought that wouldn’t leave him<\/p>\n

as he looks down Scarsdale Avenue<\/p>\n

for the outlines of his driveway<\/p>\n

where sirens do not penetrate<\/p>\n

and tired cops give up their chase<\/p>\n

and Dylan finds his special place<\/p>\n

One less slap in the face from Life<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Dylan lifts the covers from his eyes<\/p>\n

and takes in his surroundings<\/p>\n

a collection of the objects saved<\/p>\n

from his eternal childhood<\/p>\n

those Remco toys for girls and boys<\/p>\n

and Golden Books of Knowledge<\/p>\n

He kicks away his bedclothes and<\/p>\n

for a minute lays so dignified<\/p>\n

in his third-or-fourth-day underwear<\/p>\n

so unsuitable for outings<\/p>\n

but well-prepared for outer space<\/p>\n

and his next slap in the face from Life<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

His bedroom window overlooks<\/p>\n

the street next to the factories<\/p>\n

The asphalt stops at the waterworks<\/p>\n

where Dylan once went fishing<\/p>\n

but those careless days were long ago<\/p>\n

and Dylan now does tae-kwon-do<\/p>\n

a less mystic form of\u00a0 fighting<\/p>\n

against far more insubstantial foes<\/p>\n

than the carp in that polluted creek<\/p>\n

where bluegills got one last dry-eyed peek<\/p>\n

at Dylan’s hand and its embrace<\/p>\n

their final slap in the face from Life<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

He reaches back for feelings lost<\/p>\n

before his romance faltered<\/p>\n

and though he tries to exorcise<\/p>\n

the ghosts of those emotions<\/p>\n

Their dominoes fell long ago:<\/p>\n

2 blanks gave him a broken nose<\/p>\n

2 sixes led to their first kiss<\/p>\n

Now she’s an existentialist<\/p>\n

living somewhere near Los Angeles<\/p>\n

The woman Dylan once embraced<\/p>\n

just up and left without a trace<\/p>\n

One last slap in his face from Life<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

15: Please Help Abandoned Beach Toys Today<\/h2>\n

\"\" \"\" \"\"<\/p>\n

\n

\u00a9 Craig H Collins, 2002
\nThese toys need to be held.<\/h4>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

16: Mary’s Lamb 2025<\/h2>\n

Mary had a liberal lamb<\/p>\n

a liberal lamb<\/p>\n

named Abraham<\/p>\n

Mary and her liberal lamb<\/p>\n

were fond of Jacques Cousteau<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Everywhere that Mary went<\/p>\n

her lamb would bleat<\/p>\n

its loud dissent<\/p>\n

Abraham was not content<\/p>\n

to back the status quo<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It followed her to school one day<\/p>\n

leaped to her desk<\/p>\n

and baa-ed away<\/p>\n

It lectured on the works of Che<\/p>\n

which was against the rules<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Mary’s lamb cried,\u00a0“Global peace<\/p>\n

is worth far more<\/p>\n

than my pale fleece! “<\/p>\n

Her teacher promptly called the police<\/p>\n

and Abraham fled the school<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The cops arrived but didn’t find<\/p>\n

their leftist threat<\/p>\n

to humankind<\/p>\n

\u00a0just Little Mary disinclined<\/p>\n

to help them find her lamb.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

“My lamb is kind!\u2009” she dared exclaim<\/p>\n

“It is so gentle<\/p>\n

\u2009and so tame!\u2009”<\/p>\n

She begged them to forget the name<\/p>\n

of her beloved Abraham.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

“Oh, Mary loves that lamb, you know,”<\/p>\n

her teacher huffed,<\/p>\n

“so both must go!\u2009”<\/p>\n

Mary’s face turned white as snow<\/p>\n

as they hauled her to the van<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Abraham was not far away<\/p>\n

It watched this scene<\/p>\n

with great dismay<\/p>\n

It called out, “I will save the day!\u2009”<\/p>\n

and to Mary’s side it ran.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It took a bite of one cop’s ass<\/p>\n

as if it were<\/p>\n

sweet meadow grass<\/p>\n

“And here’s one for the working class!\u2009”<\/p>\n

it cried while biting harder.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Thus Mary and her liberal lamb<\/p>\n

would manage to<\/p>\n

escape that jam<\/p>\n

then post it all on Instagram<\/p>\n

to stir Progressive ardor.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

17: Treeism<\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

13: Details of Wealth The elaborate salad in the petite bowl with pepper flake   The worn pattern on the kitchen tiles where drippings fell   The gold-rimmed glass favored by the master has sustained a chip   The wooden … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-verse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/100Billion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34066","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/100Billion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/100Billion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/100Billion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/100Billion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34066"}],"version-history":[{"count":364,"href":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/100Billion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34066\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35001,"href":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/100Billion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34066\/revisions\/35001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/100Billion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/100Billion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/100Billion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}