Hand me down authority from all my father's thrones. Bind the hand of mutiny before it takes control. Shelter all the women and the children from the cold. Send the men to war for land and stay to mine for gold. And tell all of your children you'll be there when they are old. Just tell them you'll be watching them and they will make it so. We don't see their faces but we know that they are there. We have received instructions for invading everywhere. We have discovered peoples whom we find inferior. We let loose the foxes running through their town square. And I tell all of my children that it's me in their heads. Those voices are convincing they'll do everything I said. I say a lot of things and they are not so, but my children don't know, no my children don't know. I inspire admirement most places I go, but I can't have them worshipping something made out of gold like I'm inessential.

Conscious of my subjects with their ears turned to the ground. Some of them are wailing at the burial mound. I make up the rules because sometimes I don't hear a sound, but none of them remember so I write the laws down. And I have become suspicious of these new deities. Do I need a new divinity for every nicety? I say a lot of things and they are not so but my children don't know, no my children don't know! I inspire admirement most places I go, but I can't have them worshipping something made ot of gold! If it ain't me then I can't see them doing as their told! Am I the only one with any sense of control? This is essential!

Roaming through Farafra, stumbling over dunes. Desert fox looks at her sideways. She tells him her strange news, "On the streets of Cairo, on my way to class, felt my bones they shattered. My head fell through the glass. “Frail and white and female, labeled not to touch. MRl's, X-rays and rehab! I had to learn so much." Desert fox keeps silent. He knows not what to say. Her story's grim and violent but here she is today. Allahu Akbar!

I had an uncle, he's left handed too. He got bumped in the noggin, as builders often do. He don't hear voices no more. Can't hear the gods no more, he don't know what to do. He don't make love to his woman, he don't build temples too. I am a hunter, l am seventeen. My women live under the Mountain of the King. He is ubiquitous, you bet! He tells us what to do, he watches over them. He has his way with them, just like he does the men. Uncle William hasn't been himself since he was cracked on his head. He don't see the faces when the gods come through the mist like you and I do when it's needful. He has dreams, he says they're full of omens. What is divination? Thinks he knows what's coming, but we know he doesn't. Once he said, after bumped on the head, That religion was bunk. l knew that it would not be long, because you can count on one thing and that's the nature of the king and if the gods says he must go, then that's the end of your uncle.

My mascara has run away. My hair has seen better days. Weathered hands from soap scum. While you're hounding my eardrum. I only want you to love me. You only tell without showing. Up before the sun I rise. My day and night have traded sides. Blistered hands, so rough. The money isn't enough. The money is never enough. I only want you to love me. You only tell without showing. I only want you to show me! I don't get why I keep giving. The towel is throwing itself. Understand stop over-thinking. We think too much of ourselves. I don't get why I give myself. Understand! Stop thinking of yourself! Don't forget that I'm forgiving. We ought to show what we tell.

We used to lie around, you know, just talking like good people do with their husbands and their wives. I used to ask him all of the time, "What's going to happen to us when we die?" You sleep, O you sleep and you don't know nothing. You sleep, O you sleep when you lie in your grave. Can I have your number? Because I need Christians. Ain't it true God, he makes no mistakes? He went to his mother's where he went most daily. He went to his mama's in the bad part of town. He's hit on the head by a kid with an object. He's hit on the head and then he lie down. Here is a picture, a copy from service. I go to church on Sundays and cry. I cry and I cry! He's been on my mind most all of this morning and all of last night. Ain't we supposed to pray for the dead? Pray for the dead who are sleeping alone. I never knew that we were supposed to pray for their memories and pray for their souls.

Sure is busy around here, working more than nine to five, feel like death but got to look alive. I am seventeen years old pretending to be an adult. Brush the blush on my cheeks. Fake all the happiness in me. Sure is crazy around here. See my face on TV screens. Read my scoop in magazines. This public life is bizarre. Talent for beauty got me far. Waves will rise and waves will fall. Do I really want this at all? American royalty has got the sharks in a frenzy. Many celebrities become the chum that stains the sea. This trade is an ocean and I am on the brim. Fall into a maelstrom and will I sink or swim? Sink or swim? Sure is crowded around here. Cameras everywhere I go. Got no room for my elbows. Flashing lights, blinking bulbs, questions that are too personal. Caught in famous undertow. Everyone leave me alone! This trade is an ocean and I am on the brink. Fall into a maelstrom and will I swim or sink? Swim or sink? Sure is lonely around here.

When I get back from the submarine with my porthole windows squeaky clean. I can see myself, have a shave. I will be okay but her diet drains me. It's bread and roughage, I'm not complaining. I wait on her, she waits for me. She's a scorpion, a carnivore. I've asked father what to do. I'm the captain of a submarine. Porthole windows squeaky clean. Ocean sober, I pretend it's over soon. Can’t you see I want to be alone? Periscoper, pretty prayer roper now. You have got a stranger in your home. If we did not attack the mobs, then your husband would not have a job. Ships don't sink themselves I'm saying. I'll sink them ships if you start obeying. Woman! If I did not fight with you, then I would have nothing here to do. She's complaining. I am aging! Underwater hibernating!

Heaven is real. I've been there are angels everywhere are they I don't see them's the paradoxes. Too much candy hurts your teeth are made for biting things aren't always what they seems to me you're pretty. It was cold. I nearly frozen tundra monster's golden eyes watch all our souls are warm like Eskimos.

I've got the same number as the local hospital. It seems like everyday without fail from six o'clock to noon, the phone inside my room begins to ring. I wish I was but I regret to inform you I'm not who you're looking for, but I can tell by your tone that you wish I was. If only I was. No there is no doctor here. No one to help to dissolve your fears. Wish I could say that whom you hold dear will return home free and clear. The number has changed but the problem is the same. Take Alexander's need for me to intercede. I have never been one found on my knees in fear and trembling. And I have always thought church boring. No, there is no clergy here. I know not of this God you fear. I can't send you to whom you hold dear with all of your conscience cleared. I've got the same number as the local hospital. You woke me from my slumber. I'm not who you meant to call.

Dear Mary, I shiver in the cold. Like a bow I quiver from an arrow. I'm fed like a sparrow. These crumbs on the ground, a meal to the nowhere bound like me. I have begged for silver from strangers. I have washed car windshields for a dollar. Sometimes I am smaller than dirt on the floor, a bed for the worn out poor. I don't deserve charity. l don't deserve your mercy. I don't know where to begin with all that I've sinned. Dear Mary, will l find peace? Now I write this letter to the saints. Please forgive my grammar and my spelling. There's more for the telling but no room for words. Will you save a fallen bird, like me.

After you leave for clock-in time, then I creep out from where I hide and breakfast with your child bride. While you're working I sit by your little infant daughter's side and checkmate with your child bride. I like the look of your walls in the morning, in the hall, between your kitchen and bedroom. And I do almost all of my working at night so in the broad daylight, I find myself in your bedroom photographing your wife. I print my photographs at night. Look over them and narratize my mornings with your child bride. At four or five I say goodbye.  I'm gone before you rearrive to take your place atop, beside your lovely, lonely child bride. I like the feel of your pillow. I am so for real, yo! It's the way that I like mine and I do almost all of my working at night so in the broad daylight, I find myself in your bedroom, photographs of your wife.

Heard myself crying aloud. My body cast off the port bow. I'm found drifting down hands and feet tangled and bound. Drifting toward what looked to be the creature. I was taken back by its cast iron features. Unsure how this strange machine could float. Something out of a book, like a submerging boat. Soon confronted by captain and his crew. I quickly understood my stay here would soon be through. The captain said "Goodbye Professor Aronnax! The sea has brought you here, the sea shall have you back!" The ships hull suddenly gave way In the impact sparks sprayed. Our captain, in its wake cried out  “That creature's a fake!"    “Dear God!” The sailors, they prayed, "Save us from an early grave, an early grave!" Against it for goodness sake! We continue to splinter and quake. Yesterday's threat of being left at sea was Captain Nemo's way of testing me. These actions are not of a civilized man, but he never set out to be. That was never his plan. He barked "I have no need for propriety. I have done with society, for reasons good to me. Wars tear this world to pieces. Beneath these waves their reign ceases! Here I watch their evil drown and here is where my peace is found."