"A line from Francis Bacon," "A line from Max Ernst," and "A line from Kenneth Patchen"
A line from Francis Bacon
My nephew leaves me voicemails
brainstorming an interactive art
installation, something about
knee rolls fitted with double pad-
ding for rider comfort since the
effeminate tomboy is considered
somewhat more socially acceptable
these days. I have no idea what
he means. I go out very rarely &
so am not exposed to the many fads
currently floating about. Still I
make a search for what he might be
talking about, to be told that (a) the
requested resource could not be
found on the server, & (b) that the rain-
bow haired rapper failed to appear.
A line from Max Ernst
Even though the LEGO®
culture was embedded in the
office, it could've saved me
several hours if someone had
explained to me just how to
get the source code out for
some event already seen. No
one likes to admit they've
missed a major cultural hap-
pening. How different people
focus their attention on an
event will affect what they re-
member. Right now, we find
ourselves at the beginning of
the latest mass extinction. At
least 48 transgender or gender
non-conforming people have
been fatally shot or killed by
other violent means. Some
say it's due to the impacts of
higher evaporation & precipi-
tation rates, or the Egyptian
bureaucracy at work, despite
the parade route being repaved
to minimize jostling during a
variety of challenges. There's
something on for everyone.
Come & sample some canapes.
A line from Kenneth Patchen
Three days stuck in planes be-
fore arriving. I tried to engage in
conversations over dinner coffee, to
discover that being ironic or sar-
donic or sarcastic — anything in fact,
apart from using platitudes — serves
only to breach what passes as
cultural norms hereabouts. The
signs of the Black Death can still be
seen. Now a bittersweet place, that
neither technology nor the rapid con-
sumption of shooters can transform.
![Mark Young Mark Young](https://www.unlikelystories.org/sites/default/files/mark%20young%20in%20melbourne%203%20small.jpg)
Mark Young was born in Aotearoa New Zealand but now lives in a small town on traditional Juru land in North Queensland, Australia. He is the author of nearly seventy books, primarily text poetry but also including speculative fiction, vispo, memoir, and art history. His most recent books are a pdf, Mercator Projected, published by Half Day Moon Press (Turkey) in August 2023; Ley Lines II published by Sandy Press (California) in November 2023; un saut de chat published by Otoliths Books (Australia) in February 2024; and Melancholy, a James Tate Poetry Prize winner, published by SurVision Books (Ireland) in March 2024. Mark recommends the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.