kp august 28, 1941

A Poem by h d e rushin

The televangelist, I think it was Rod Parsley after he had shaved his beard, said that I needed a 'break through'.

Said that if I would just place my palm (he really didn't say palm, he said hand, but I figured he meant palm since

hand implies altitude and vertex's ) on the television screen and believe like poets believe that if you press any

eminence against the orbs of truth, that it will ultimate become flesh; that all the bad objects, all the menace,

some of the alternative facts will race down the aisle like severed heads did in that second "Omen" movie, when

my sister bolted for the exit. Dad caught her half way to delirium and madness. Driving home, we spoke

in harmful voices about what demons do to children at the university. And of how splendid Mrs. Jablonski's

tulips were against the bricks her husband of 43 years died without painting. He told my dad about Kamenets Podolski

long before we could Google it. About depravation and death. About how people were burned alive way

off in the forest then laid face down into long pits that they had dug themselves. The way my dad would punch

the side of the old Sylvania, arm wrestle with the antenna with such force I grew to believe that death could

dance amongst the glowing tubes; could tiptoe over it's warmth, it's alien buzzing. The lines, that horrible,

lingering white spot it left. On

the new television I bought Mother, the one we mounted on the dry wall with screws; the one made of no

metals from the earth, just resin and jutting color. The one made by poor souls who's lungs hurt

as they sing and who's teeth clash together from the stench, she watches "Wheel of Fortune" at seven,

then takes the "Jeopardy " challenge at 7:30 if she can remember to turn the sound up louder.

© 2017 h d e rushin

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Reviews

jacob erin-cilberto

flat screen pictures, flat screen lives...

if we have our tv's and turn up the sound---not only is the definition way better than actual life...but the sound can drowned out what's going on around us.

we might watch a lot of jeopardy...and feel smarter...but are we? when we ignore so much that needs to be changed, outside that half hour of answers and questions.
j.