Keegadam created by 9 rules

Keegadam: The Story

I

1. Balance. Eat them slowly and only kiss them once.
2. Creation of symbols as the “mind comprehending the incomprehensible” God reveals himself to the human mind. Yes--- but not about that. First person narration. Use standard tropes through story to reveal GOD?
3. Shoes!
4. Be not enamored with ______.
5. Hack fish?
6. Do something gigantic and in marble.
7. Learn to knit.
8. Sleep with woman.
9. Graffiti—talk to Max about this. Find Lefebvre essay?
10. Get better at crosswords.
11. Other people deserve chocolate too.
12. Make him a damn present.
13. Praise this mutilated world.

A man walked in to a bar.

1. No self control/ impulsive
2. Flabby lower-butt.
3. Undeniably self-centered / self-obsessed
4. not capable of that I want most?
5. Ego.

A man walked in to a bar. A man walked in to a bar and he ordered a drink. “Bartender,” he said, “I’d like a drink.”

1. Tomato sauce
2. Bagged spinach
3. Cherry tomatoes
4. Dandruff shampoo
5. Orange juice
6. Butter
7. Twine

The bartender made him a drink and set it on the bar. The man drank there for a while. He drank one drink after each drink he drank was empty. This went on and on until it was over. Then the man finished one drink and he went home to his wife.

1. I am prettier than most
2. Animals like me

The man loved his wife. He lay down beside her and the man slept.


II

There are helmets that hang from wires. There are tables in a room. There are dreams that only come once but don’t know when to leave. Most things are circular.
Someone I know used to live here and care for these things. He cherished them without comprehension. Now he understands and he will never return.
Every morning he chooses a new favorite band. He forgets yesterday. He turns something on. He takes coffee with newspaper. He turns it off or he doesn’t. He scans the street stupidly. He makes up lies and writes them down. He opens the same door and enters the one articulation: “When the helmet was removed, I felt light and silly. Anybody can understand that some non-obstacles are filled with books posing as obstacles.”
I am escorted onto a field. I watch him through a wire fence. He watches himself stand in line. I am not disturbed and I do not call out to him.

III

1-5. Damn him damn him he shut the lid over me. Wish to god he didn’t shut the lid over me. Did he even know? Damn him for thinking he knew and even if he thought that he didn’t know damn him too. Damn him. Still I search in this small space still. I try tiny tries and when I finally find them they are too many and I try to quiet them, just to manage them you see, and then they disappear but he’s never gone, won’t leave, and there is no room to fold my legs or take a breath in. Damn him now I’m all in my throat. I am not sure there is a lid at all. 6. There must be a lid. If not I’ll make the damn lid. 7-13. The lid.

IV

The man sat down at his desk and started to write something. He was writing one thing - it is possible to write one thing – can I feel nothing and sadness at the same time? – while thinking about two things – (1) but perhaps I am not sad (2) I shoot holes in all these numbers. when they got plenty of holes, gather them. grind them with my teeth until they look like ashes. scatter their debris on the floor and go to the porch to smoke. forget the porch. sweep up this matter with a broom and a dustpan. deposit it in a little box and then put the box in the bottom corner of a closet. cover it with old blankets and handouts from classes you don’t remember. gone. they were never here. sit at your desk. now go back to the closet and retrieve the box. place it on the desk and open it up. you see those numbers? now put them back together. – while thinking another.
The man’s wife was still asleep. The man heard her snoring in the bed behind him. He crumpled his paper and started over. The man started over by writing the beginning of a song:
Bring out your broken hearts,
Bring out your almost-dead,
Assemble your telescopes,
Up on the mountaintops.

V

The telescopes are meant to help see places we might not otherwise be able to see. There are times when one sees only one thing (the numbers, of course) or nothing at all. There are other times when one can’t say anything, or can speak only a single sound: the spewing of the lists, grating of the lists, grinding of the lists, the resurrecting of the lists. Then one can only hear one sound: the lists, the numbers, the lists. One realizes that one has turned the bartender into a list. One has destroyed the bartender, then destroyed his list. Thus the broken hearts are rendered numbers too. One realizes one is trapped. Has one become a list? One has nothing. To remedy this one must assemble a telescope; one must write a song. One must assemble this telescope and angle it just so. It must bring light in; it must prop the lid up and bring in the light. The man propped the lid and made a mountaintop or many mountaintops. And that’s when the man could see. He saw his wife. Now she is made up of breaths and wheezes and not of digits. She is not her numbers, her plans, her lists. She is alive and sleeping in the morning light.

We belong to new ruins
We belong strange cities
Strange cities spread themselves
Open when we come, God.

To make a life one must build with odd-sized stones and no mortar. No calculations. In the end we hope this life to look like the village of Gordes (the locals pronounce it “God”). We hope this village will hold itself up. We visit Gordes and we say that we have “seen God.” We laugh when we can laugh and we always return from these trips. I shall avoid lists. We shall live in our city. The man sang his song. The man loved his wife. A man walked in to a bar.

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The Rules

1) Each part must include at least one piece of pre-existing text.
2) Each part must include both new and pre-existing text. The amount
of pre-existing text included and the ratio of pre-existing text to
new writing will be decided by the authors and may change from part to
part.
3) All pre-existing text must be
1) previously written by the authors (Keegan or Adam)
2) including but not limited to texts written by Keegan to or
about Adam or by Adam to or about Keegan.
4) Include no subject matter referencing, pertaining, or
alluding to VOLCANOES.
4) There will be five parts.
5) Parts will alternate authorship between Keegan and Adam.
6) Keegan commences.
7) Each part will be emailed (in its entirety) between authors upon
completion.
8) Said authors must create parts sequentially within one week of the
preceding part's completion.
9) Keegan may opt to amend rules before commencement.