Disasterology

The Badger is the thirteenth astrological sign. My sign. The one the other signs evicted: unanimously. So what? Think I want to read about my future in the newspaper next to the comics? My third grade teacher told me I had no future. I run through the snow and turn around just to make sure I've got a past. My life's a chandelier dropped from an airplane. I graduated first in my class from alibi school. There ought to be a healthy family cage at the zoo, or an open field, where I can lose my mother as many times as I need. When I get bored, I call the cops, tell them there's a pervert peeking in my window! then I slip on a flimsy nightgown, go outside, press my face against the glass and wait... This makes me proud to be an American where drunk drivers ought to wear necklaces made from the spines of children they've run over. I remember my face being invented through a windshield. All the wounds stitched with horsehair So the scars galloped across my head. I remember the hymns cherubs sang in my bloodstream. The way even my shadow ached when the chubby infants stopped. I remember wishing I could be boiled like water and made pure again. Desire so real it could be outlined in chalk. My eyes were the color of palm trees in a hurricane. I'd wake up and my id would start the day without me. Somewhere a junkie fixes the hole in his arms and a racing car zips around my halo. A good God is hard to find. Each morning I look in the mirror and say promises me something don't do the things I've done. - Jeffrey McDaniel