Concourse by A.E. Plastic
A.E. Plastic September 23, 2009 at 2:26AM
I spend far
too much time
in transit
waiting
for connections
Condor Airways advises passengers that departure time for flight KNZ 334 for Hanover has been delayed until 17.30. We would like to apologise for any inconvenience to customers for this delay which arose due to the late arrival of the incoming aircraft.
From: LucyG@ hotmail. com
Hi Honey
Hope you have a safe journey. Charlie is still coughing so I’m keeping her home. She’s not a happy bunnikins by no means since she is going to miss out on drama class. However, she’s making up lost ground here, with yours truly cast as the wicked witch. No show from the builder again; his office said his grandmother had died. She seems to be making a habit of it. Must run; the man from supermarket.com has just arrived with a palette laden with
life’s essentials. I can hear the chink of Chablis from here!
Later
Lulu
[save]
Breaking News… Newlyweds slaughtered in machete horror… ….Police warn public to be vigilant…Shares slide after interest rates rise again….soap star gives birth to quadruplets…
From: Tanya_ Deville@ yahoo.com
Miss you horseman. Sooooo much. Just thought you’d like to know I’m doing my bit for global warming -cutting down on the laundry by not wearing any panties today. See you tomorrow at the usual g-spot hahah.
XXXXXXXXXXXXX plus an O!
T
[delete]
Condor Airways advises passengers that arrival time for flight KNZ 378 from Rome has been delayed until 19.30. We would like to apologise for any inconvenience to customers for this delay which arose due to the late departure of the outgoing aircraft.
From: roger.brakewaite@ galacticsolutions.net
Hi G
Just so as you can quaff the Kool-Aid, here’s the long-awaited Version 10.3 of the Mission Statement, delivered after mucho angst and the lavishing of elephantine quantities of our ill-gotten gains upon our friendly (and why the fuck wouldn’t they be?) global brand consultants:
Galactic Solutions e-enable our clients deploying leading-edge research and next-generation technologies. Organizations gain critical competitive advantage from our holistic strategising and user-centric paradigms; we architect and deliver client-specific solutions by combining our in-house competencies synergistically with the aggregate expertise of our global network of world-class partners.
Stamp that on your forehead, boyo!
Looking forward to a right royal nosh chez G come Saturday; Lu is so tragically wasted on you.
Rog
[save]
This is an important security announcement. Please do not leave any bags unattended at any time. Any bags left unattended will be promptly removed and may be destroyed.
From: infomaillotteryaward@yahoo.com
Yahoo! Mail announces you as one of the 10 lucky winners in the ongoing Yahoo lottery Award for 2008 SUMMER. All the 10 winning email addresses were randomly selected from a batch of 50,000,000 international emails as part of our international promotions program which is conducted annually. Consequently, you have been approved for a total pay-out of SIX HUNDRED THOUSAND UNITED STATE DOLLARS
[delete]
From: LucyB@ hotmail. com
PS Charlie says be sure to send a postcard (her new best friend Simon collects foreign stamps!!)
[save]
Soap star gives birth to quadruplets…North Korea announce next stage of nuclear power programme...Ronaldo moves to Real Madrid for world record transfer fee…Breaking News…Newlyweds slaughtered in machete horror….
I spend far
too much time
in transit
waiting
Reader Comments (19)
breaking newlyweds in machete horror.....
(could get more scrambled, i think.....)
dear Johnny
i love the ephemeral feel of the first 5 lines
and how you have tacked on to them the off the ground flying dimension
of being grounded into the world.
and could find it a gift to also find the first 5 lines
in an other version all on their own.
a warm smile
silent lotus
Splendid slice of modern living. Quite sad really, each relationship as hollow and ultimately impersonal as yahoo spam mail.
One quibble:
Must run; the man from supermarket.com has just arrived with a palette laden with life’s essentials.
Is the tone here perhaps too formal for an email from a spouse? I know it's leading up to the Chablis "joke" but still seems a little stiff, to my coarse and uncultured Northerner's ear.
I find this really quite moving.
B.
~
Luff it.
pallet. pallette is for artists.
Quite right Peter; you'd think she'd have known better.
Maybe she's an artist.
agree with pete on possibly getting more scrambled
I'm initially inclined to nix the last line, and end with
I spend far
too much time
in transit
Not sure on that, though.
What do you mean "more scrambled"? had meant to ask Pete but . . .
i thought the whole scenario could lead to a greater confusion of place-syntax-thought processes as we neared the end... it could just be a little more muddled by then, it's still all quite clear, although it speaks of confusion.
by the way, the mission statement is perfectly evil. wondrous.
Mmm . . .not sure. I like how the Breaking news is all so seemingly monumental yet actually very normal: quaruplets, world record transfer fee, machete horror, nuclear threats --- and yet I feel nothing. As does, I suspect, the narrator.
Anything tricksy would run the risk of becoming a gimmick and considerably cheapen the whole, I think. Might be wrong . .
B.
~
I loved the content of the emails; they're funny, but they really ache. Part of me slightly ignored the header and footer, and found the poem to be in those emails, but I'm not too adamant on that.
james
JTH typed: "they're funny, but they really ache"
just so, just so.
Shari
scrambled, like when you can't/don't hear every word in a concourse announcement, most especially when you are trying to read, or like when you can't/don't read every word in an email, most especially when you are being bombarded with concourse announcements
nothing tricksy, just in the there
Shari
mmmm . . . . examples?
I third James' observation re the emails, the ache. Yes.
I liked the little poem before the emails. The metaphore in it worked in me subjectively as being a kind of Limbo, a disconnection externally imposed. But the juxtaposition of Lucy's first email and Tanya's email makes me think the disconnection is (awfully) from within. I'm horrified by the narrator's nihilism, and think he'll wait forever. The other emails reinforce the image of the narrator feeling nothing about anything. Maybe I'm on the wrong track, but I found the piece very moving, one of the few poems around that address a core problem. I also appreciated the differing diction in the emails. Respect!