The Garment in which no one had Slept-Pam Rhem

from Thus I find my legs

IV.

The fact of sex under a microscope can be determined beforehand.

I have, on the other hand, an apprehension as to what exists outside of myself. As force. Thus, my waiting isn't spoiled.

There is no loss of speed. My decision to not know comes from my inability to affirm the prediction.

I remember the needle swinging above my mother's wrist read as one boy and four girls. However, he is absent.

I could never ask if he had existed because I was never told the story. Sometimes I thought that I only overheard myself.

everything's fine--part two

“That’s the thing,” said Principal Fontana. “I want to be involved in your lives. Or I think I do. But then, really, when I look into my heart, I’d rather be on the driving range, or getting drunk, or getting my wick dipped. Is this shocking you?”

“Some nights,” I said, “I picture myself naked, covered in napalm, running down the street. But then it’s not napalm. It’s apple butter. And it’s not a street. It’s my mother.”

“Right,” said Fontana. “I knew I could talk to you.”

---sam lipsyte

I was never your assassin

The more I think about it, the more I’d like to take a rain check on the subject of me. What I’d like to know more about is the objective reality of things outside myself. how important the world outside is to me, how I maintain a sense of equilibrium by coming to terms with it. That’s how I’d grasp a clearer sense of who I am.

from "sputnick sweetheart" by haruki murakami

Everything's fine.

"Everything's fine," I said. "You're here. I'm here. Everything's fine."

"Fuck here," said Gary. "We were from a town. A little town. Do you remember?"

"What a question," I said.

"There were people there," said Gary. "There were cars. Carports. You knew where to park."

"Dog hatches in the doors," I said. "Dog doors. Nearmont Avenue. The trestles on Main."

"Spartakill Road," said Gary. "Venus Drive. The Hobby Shop, the Pitch-n-Putt, Big Vin's Pizza, the Plaza."

"Behind the plaza," I said.

"Exactly," said Gary. "Behind it."

-- from Sam Lipsyte's "I'm Slavering"