Monday, July 31, 2023

Jeff Clark

 If I Don't Return

If I don't return it's because on the way I was drawn from my sidewalk into a 
pawn shop, or else becuase a morose young man pulled me by the lapels of my
coat into a doorway and demanded, "What is meant by this word?" But before I 
could reply, someone stepped between us and said, "Say, for example, I gave 
you a little lamp, and you rubbed a Genie out of it, who offered you a wish. We
would expect you to wish for something, but you would instead try to confuse 
him, you might insist he change himself into a plastic bird, or you might say to 
him, 'In my canoe I am pelted by leshies,' or, 'Il y a de temps en temps un con 
qui me visite dans ma nuit et qui s'appele Monsieur D. Able-'"

That is when I shoved her aside and made a loud noise with my lips and cried, 
"Listen, you ought to wish for nothing but fame and then throw the bottle 
away!" I went on thus . . .

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