FIRE STORM
by
John Bennett

A new collection of Shards from Pudding House Press, the same press that published Bennett's first book of Shards in 1996.

from Tying a Windsor:

"...My father died the same day as Ken Kesey.  I flew east for the funeral.  They dressed me up in his clothes.  I stood in front of the  mirror in his slacks and silk shirt and prepared to make a knot in his tie. I thought it would be easy, like riding a bike, even after decades you just get on and go.  But I could no longer do it, and after five minutes I gave up and walked down the hall to the kitchen.  My father's second wife had just put toast in the toaster.

 'This thing either burns the toast or brings it up too light,' she said.  'I  was after him for almost a year to fix it,  but you know your -- '  She was interrupted by the toast popping out of the toaster a good foot into the air and falling to the floor.

 We laughed so hard we had tears in our eyes.  We laughed until our jaws ached, and then my father's new wife began crying. 

 Embarrassed, I looked down, and there on the floor lay the toast -- unbuttered and golden..."

ISBN: 1-58998-592-3

Price: $10.00 (Click for Secure Purchasing)

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COBRAS & BUTTERFLIES
by
John Bennett

Shards.  Winner of Mystery Island's "Poetry Idol" competition.

APACHE WARRIORS, I SALUTE YOU

So this is what a last stand feels like. The realization that the Beast cannot be killed.

In Vietnam, monk after monk sat in the lotus position and set himself on fire. Henry Cabot Lodge dismissed them as sensationalists. He also said it was interesting, sipping brandy behind his mahogany desk in the embassy, to hear gun fire on the streets of Saigon. Such are our ambassadors, be they American, French, Japanese or German. I spit on this sit-com TV world, from the top down to the bottom.

Geronimo came out of the mountains only after they'd shipped his people off to Florida like Jews in box cars. But there were others who did not come down. They rode into the purple mist. They are there to this day. 

Apache warriors, I salute you.

Price: $10.00 (Click for Secure Purchasing)