LAST MINUTE CONTRIBUTOR

ROBERT VIVIAN

RV loves fly fishing loves Cat On A Hot Tin Roof RV loved Sister Anne Marie the only Catholic nun he ever knew who could not stop laughing RV has published nonsense in all the best waffle houses has gorgeously attempted mouth-to-mouth resuscitation with his wife Tina at least 10,000 times RV intuits the unbearable weight of the feeling world RV flosses like a motherfucker RV races back and forth in the basement before dawn hoping to learn how to fly RV uses a calculator for the simplest arithmetic even 2+2 RV had an asthma attack once as a boy and tried to jump out the window RV asks God what God how God all this beauty God all this pain RV has a squirt gun whose nickname is Squirt RV calls his brother drunk and weeping with joy into the phone actual tears actual droplets that cause static but also emotional clarity whose sentiments will live forever RV talks to the dead rehearses for the dead knows the dead are watching as he walks in the river and almost trips over the sunken log RV studies his hands with a clinical detachment as he ages noting the spots beginning to form not unlike the burnt corollas of stars RV pretends to be an academic and academic-minded and wears tweed pants but at the end of the day tears off his clothes like an old testament prophet with beetles hopping out of his hair RV likes his vodka likes his vodka as if vodka were a galloping horse on some far flung meadow and he riding said horse holding on for dear life RV is a savant at failure a Michelangelo of the wrong road though he picks daises along the way and wonders at their dripping milk RV was called a dervish once in Turkey a Midwestern American dervish who would have thunk it who would have divined it RV broke his nose and his two front teeth were knocked out and he partially tore his Achilles breaking toward the basket but is so thankful to still be able to dance to Prince circa 1985 RV asks forgiveness of rocks and stones and all the mothering trees RV is reclaiming his Celtic heritage by going wild and getting a little drunk again RV gnashes his teeth sometimes it’s really frightening spills his coffee walks unbeknownst into the waiting room at the dentist with his fly down RV is expert at losing bills RV loves his wife’s hair spilled out across the pillow in the wild abandon of sleep and Danish dreams RV is alive for now and sometimes suffers from a palpable form of inner excitement that makes his voice sound high and breathless half an octave away from inhaled helium RV is waiting to put in the garden RV is a garden RV is a wastrel flower near the compost heap drenched by day with sunlight drenched by night with moonlight RV is currently working on a new version of the Tibetan Book Of The Dead called Float Away With Me RV is learning how to be a kid again with the whole sky in his mouth smiling because it is almost spring almost spring and he can hear the strawberries talking to their bright red bursting colors telling them just a little longer a little longer we’re almost there.