“When your mama was the geek, my dreamlets,” Papa would say, “she made the nipping off of noggins such a crystal mystery that the hens themselves yearned toward her, waltzing around her, hypnotized with longing.” —Katherine Dunn, Geek Love (1983)
This is the saddest story I have ever heard.
Granted: I am an inmate of a mental hospital,
All this happened, more or less.
Once upon a time.
***
If you really want to hear about it,
the first thing you’ll probably want to know is
where I was born,
and what my lousy childhood was like.
In my younger and more vulnerable years
my father gave me some advice
You better not never tell nobody but God.
Most really pretty girls have pretty ugly feet.
It is a truth universally acknowledged
Happy families are all alike.
***
Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life,
I will tell you in a few words who I am:
lover of the hummingbird
that darts to the flower
beyond the rotted sill
where my feet are propped.
If I am out of my mind,
it’s all right with me.
***
Life changes fast.
Life changes in an instant.
Time is not a line but a dimension
Psychics can see the color of time,
it’s blue.