from my unpublished collection
1.
The guy who plays the groundhog Punxsutawney Phil has gotten falling down drunk. Six more years of darkness, he keeps shouting at the crowd. No one pays him any mind. No one else appears to notice. He almost trips off the edge of the float, and the float keeps going.
2.
The healing units keep you from dying. On the floor, a worm cut off in a gutter. Who would feel sorry for something that looks like a sandbag ripped at the seams? A kick, a question. A kick, a question. A pile of prisoners stacked like sandbags prays to God. The cameras roll but no video is made.
3.
It is 1682, a backwater year in the grand parade, before the Chinese emperor invades the island of Taiwan. A frustrated young artist paints a yellow square, then a band of blue above it, then a band of green below, then throws away the canvas in disgust. The Ottoman Empire on the move. In a few more months, their crack troops of Janissaries storm the gates of Vienna.
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First published in Prairie Schooner
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images and text © by Alpay Ulku
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