My Blog Week: January 16 to January 22

Posted by ractrose on 24 Jan 2022 in The Latest |No Comments

All the Latest from Torsade!                                 A Word on the Week     Critical Lapses (part five)           At the beginning of this series, I introduced the argument that criticism of popular entertainment is not negligible, […]

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The Resident (part one)

Posted by ractrose on 21 Jan 2022 in Fiction, Short Stories |No Comments

    The Resident (part one)   Terrible old place with dark wood paneling, sticky to the touch, white bloom on the sticky. Narrow, inadequate windows, electrical outlets in short supply, mishmash of ancient (not antique) furnishings, to be sold with. Large back lawn features laburnum, undercarpeted in messy pods, limbs marred by strange attempt […]

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Catastrophe (part ten)

Posted by ractrose on 21 Jan 2022 in Nonfiction, Translation |No Comments

Jean Hess La Catastrophe de la Martinique (part ten)                       It seems to me, when my mind’s eye evokes the spectacle…it seems to me that I become stupid again, as I was when the boat stopped, and a canoe landed me on the beach. Once, […]

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Such Is Life (poem)

Posted by ractrose on 19 Jan 2022 in Art, Poems |No Comments

      Such Is Life   The dream, a side effect Always asking ears be lent at waking times Ugly invest, imp of intent Garnish that thought, the sufferer selfcounsels Such is life, each become a theme Each devoid of rallying, or selfemployed, as is at broadcasting The dream, a side effect, now DNA […]

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My Blog Week: January 9 to January 15

Posted by ractrose on 18 Jan 2022 in The Latest |No Comments

All the Latest from Torsade!                                 A Word on the Week     Critical Lapses (part four)           An excerpt from the Rush Limbaugh CPAC speech of 2009:   We see human beings. We don’t see […]

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Fellyans (part two)

Posted by ractrose on 18 Jan 2022 in Fiction, Short Stories |No Comments

    Fellyans (part two)   The monarch kicked the lamp that had gone out. By accident…but he would, if he could see it, give it another from spite. He sought the cellar door, thinking to examine the sky. Experience had taught that skywatching played tricks on one’s balance, and tumbles in this place were […]

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Hammersmith: A Prisoner Goes Missing (part two)

Posted by ractrose on 17 Jan 2022 in Fiction, Novels |No Comments

Hammersmith Thirty-Eight A Prisoner Goes Missing (part two)           The professor had ferried Minnie into his arms. “Here’s your gal…you take good care of her, mister. And I’ll just say adios.” To himself, Shaw could admit a five-second reverie of chucking it all. Why not tell Medlow, “Blame me. I let […]

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Catastrophe (part nine)

Posted by ractrose on 16 Jan 2022 in Nonfiction, Translation |No Comments

Jean Hess La Catastrophe de la Martinique (part nine)                             VI. The Funeral Boat On Land…What We Saw There     I had seen the volcano in passing near the coast, aboard the Saint-Domingue. I had remarked the terror it threatened to […]

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The Blue Bird (conclusion)

Posted by ractrose on 14 Jan 2022 in Fiction, Short Stories |No Comments

Short Stories The Blue Bird (part four)                         She saw two women parting hangers on racks. The light was natural, not enough…but above the escalator, and beaming from an office behind, were fluorescent fixtures, on. “There you go,” Dave said. TV screens hanging on […]

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Eight: King’s Bishop (poem)

Posted by ractrose on 13 Jan 2022 in Art, Poems |No Comments

      King’s Bishop   How’s the latest hoodwink? That a good word, hoodwink? You like it? So it comes from olden times, highway robbery Stagecoaches, powdered wigs Stand and eat liver, that the phrase? [laughs] And warned him with her death You think I’m nuts, what’s he talking about? You don’t know that […]

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