---
title: About the author
subtitle: (not pictured)
genre: table

id: about-the-author
toc: "About the author (not pictured)"

epigraph:
    content: The body that surrounds him is his, but his insides are not.

project:
    title: Stark Raving
    class: stark
    order: 19
    prev:
    - title: Something about all music being performances of _4′33″_ in places where other bands happen to be playing
      link: music-433
    - title: Riptide of memory
      link: riptide_memory
...

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[He was born][] on a few separate occasions                              _[green traffic lights][] at night_

There was the day of his conception \                                      _[a TV in front of a dumpster][]_
a wintery affair saved for those involved

The day he wriggled forth \
from the dark tunnel of nothing \                                      _surprise photo of you at Walgreen's_
[his mother's womb][]

The founding of his little city \
deep inside by the small builders \                        _a [pink dress in the alley][] behind your house_
alien as they were and still \
somehow intimately familiar

Like any city it had its ups \
and downs the fever of 1994 \                          _me buying a Reese's peanut butter cup for a child_ \
was especially devastating \                                           _[whose family couldn't afford it]_ \
but they were a hardy folk \                                       _[in front of me in line at Safeway][]_
not much given to flight

As all things must pass the \
little city began slowly to decay \                                       _trees at night their skeletons_ \
the [old ones claimed the young][] \                                          _revealed by a camera flash_
had no respect for culture anymore

They began to die off slowly \
more quickly than being born \                                 _[two earthworms on pavement after a rain][]_
the end was coming closer

As the [last breath][] was made \
the last accounts closed in the city                                 _keys tacked to a sign in Buffalo Park_

It was given over to other builders                     _man flipping a [four-wheeler][] and walking it off_

----------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------

[two earthworms on pavement after a rain]: the-sea_the-beach.html
[He was born]: sixteenth-chapel.html
[a TV in front of a dumpster]: options.html
[his mother's womb]: death-zone.html
[green traffic lights]: stayed-on-the-bus.html
[pink dress in the alley]: in-bed.html
[in front of me in line at Safeway]: last-bastion.html
[old ones claimed the young]: creation-myth.html
[last breath]: last-passenger.html
[four-wheeler]: deadman.html