"Early summer, walking, standing still,
then walking again, moving deeper and
deeper into the forest, into the woods,
great mature, deep-rooted trees, a few
leafy saplings in the odd sunny spot,
very green, very pleasant, and I hear
a man`s sudden laughter, loud and long,
the sound coming from everywhere at once
or from somewhere up above me...

And again he roars, yes he is uproarious
with laughter, and then there is the far
distant sound of galloping hooves riding
away... well, you know, on some days it
would be the brutish noise of a powerful
motor I could hear but the laughter was
always the same, and actually I think it
sounded more like something was barking.

I think I used to know that guy, he would
turn out all the lights, open the front door
and go out, just walk away into the night
without saying a word to me when I was still
sitting there in an armchair, reading. I mean
I was obviously sitting there trying to read
a book.

I heard that one morning he woke up and
saw himself in an ancient marble face, and
then his feet were walking on the bottom of
an ocean, walking on a clear path between
high walls of chattering water piled up on
his left and high walls of chattering water
on his right, boldly moving forward while
echoes of a loud commanding word trembled
in the upper air. He went on to rule the
land that is nothing but promises.

Just the other day I think I heard his voice
right behind me... or... wait... maybe it
might have been on a loudspeaker in that
department store downtown where I heard it,
oh, but then I remembered it must have been
when I was all by myself going up in the
elevator... when I heard it, I mean.

In the middle of the night my brain quietly
woke me up and I know now what it`s all been
about. I am sort of being haunted by Orwell`s
dark vision of a synthetic tyranny, you know,
of "Big Brother" (from his book "1984").

So then this morning I turn on the news and
it turns out in my head the "news" has a
laugh track now."

07/21/2018