1706 c/o Michael Inscoe
Eat not to dullness
Ben Franklin crying thinking about how crying is always a performance even when a person authentically feels authentic sadness
Ben Franklin thinking: ‘then nothing is necessary I guess; look at me, feeling things and shit; god damn’
Ben Franklin eating a fleshy pear:
‘Jesus Christ, this is a fleshy pear’
He walks to a yellow wood but he seriously can’t decide which road to take!
Holy fuck he’s confused
He bends over and scoops up some leaves in his hand
The leaves are damp and yellow and orange and the sky is blue
He drops the leaves and smells the earth on his hands
Rain and dirt and leaves
He walks home to his dog and thinks about Deborah
‘I am a fucking lightning rod, mother fucker,’ he thinks
He thinks that about her, about Deborah
‘Holy fuck I’m confused’
He leaves a note for his roommate:
‘I have eaten the pear that was in the refrigerator
You probably wanted it for yourself
Forgive me it was delicious
so fleshy and I can’t stop thinking about Deborah LOL gonna go get drunk I guess’
The Plain Truth
Ben Franklin crosses the street and enters the bar and orders a drink and oh fuck Deborah is there
He feels like shit but the only other bar in town is too far to walk to; and it’s cold and too tempting to jump in the freezing river that is close by
He walks home drunk and his roommate yells at him
Ben Franklin gets under his covers and lies very still
His dog comes into the room
Ben Franklin looks at his dog and says ‘I’m sorry I have failed you all, haha’
The dog listens to Ben Franklin say this 3 more times and then he climbs into bed with him
Ben Franklin sleeps for a while and then wakes and makes coffee and thinks about things to invent
He says ‘I wish I could invent something to make Deborah like me or even to give me the ability to talk to her’
His roommate walks into the room and looks at him:
‘Your dog peed in the kitchen’
‘I wish I could invent something to make the dog not pee in the house or to make me feel like a worthwhile human being, haha’
His roommate leaves the house
Ben Franklin in his shop (spare bedroom) thinking about Deborah and trying not to go drink a beer:
‘I am a mother fucking lightning rod
mother fucker, I am a lightning rod’
