Brief, but brilliant, lightning flashes. Explosive crashes of thunder that seize control of the heavens and roll across the sky. Rain. Plain rain. Just a bit of water to moisten the bone-dry ground. There is no way to know whether those bolts of lightning will grow in frequency or energy. No way to predict whether thunder will slink away, losing its powerful, earth-shaking ability to frighten all the living creatures beneath it as its bellicose roars softens to incoherent, impotent silence. Pre-dawn darkness, amplified by a thick cover of clouds, offers no clues to the future of the storm. Predictions lacking evidence are simply bold projections, based on emptiness and the imposition of fear. Volcanoes are not “normal.” Hurricanes and tornadoes are not “normal.” But are they “natural?” Childbirth is a “natural” event, but is it “normal?” Or has childbirth been “abnormal” from the very beginning? Are volcanoes and hurricanes and tornadoes “natural” responses to “abnormal” events? Logic is missing from what we call “natural” and “normal” events. When there is no logic, there is no connection. So we invent one…comprised of witches who slaughter pumpkins. And we create monsters who live in urban tunnels, where they conduct hideous experiences involving innocent children and molten metals. And the witches sharpen scalpel blades before they scamper off into the forest for their castration expeditions…hunting just one target, a billionaire psychopath, a “breeder” whose associates are psychotic in the extreme. Happy Halloween!
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My physical weakness has surpassed its former levels. Or should I say it has plunged to levels not heretofore seen? Or felt? Today a friend is again taking me to an oncology appointment, where the medical staff will stab me in the chest to draw more blood. I hope they will extract the weakness that resides inside me, leaving me more powerful, more energetic, and more alert than I have been of late. I woke about every half hour last night. I feel like I could sleep for hours without interruption. But I felt that way last night, too; something (the need to pee…my guess) rousted me out bed. If I keep sleeping so damn much, my strength will wither. Would I rather sleep or retain my strength? Sleep seems to have an upper hand in this exchange.
