Us Blues
by Greg Owens

PASTIME – “worthy of the long-forgotten sadism of Faulkner’s Jason Compson: real, brutal, and funny … something Hunter S. Thompson might have thought up on a hallucinogenic trip in a stolen Caddie Vegas.

Great stuff.”

(Jeff Rice, Ryder Magazine).

FISH BABY DREAMING – A woman dreams of catching swimming babies from a tank with a plunger.

EXTREME CUSTOMER SERVICE – Aren’t tech support operators supposed to wait for you to call them?

Not at Computer Cult.

THE LEPER VALLEY CONDO ASSOCIATION – Two Yuppies disguise themselves as lepers to try to get a sweet condo.

WHITE TRASH BINGO – “a tasteless and derivative study of low brow caricatures… with no seeming purpose other than to make fun of their exaggerated egregiousness” (T S Kerrigan, Drama-Logue).

THE ROAD IS AN ASPHALT HOSTESS – “a welcome return to the American folk tradition of storytelling” (Gabrielle Kaplan, Chicago Reader).

BUFFALO ROAM – Working stiffs Nick and Stan watch a gigantic herd of buffalo run wild through the streets of the city below as they ponder the meaning of these events and life itself.

PABLO PICASSO TEACHES HIGH SCHOOL – Even though he’s still alive and looking for work, the greatest artist of the 20th century can’t get hired as a substitute high school art teacher because he isn’t certified.

THE BASTARD CHILD OF EVEL KNIEVEL – A young girl and her mother watch Evel Knievel fail to jump Snake River Canyon while her dad leaves them both for his girlfriend.

POETS ANONYMOUS – Romance.

Longing.

Amateur verse of questionable quality.

At Bud’s I-90 Truck Stop Casino Poetry Discussion Group in western Montana.

AT THE INTERSECTION OF AGE AND RAGE – Angry youth meets pedantic elder at stoplight.

Mutual understanding does not ensue.