Middle of the Night
by Howie Good
A Facebook “friend,” a painter, loved paint so much that he drank a jar of it. It was a strange time for me, too. I had to cancel the adult ed course I was scheduled to teach, “Are You Really an Ethical Person?”, when Franz Kafka appeared to me. “To destroy is to exist,” he exulted as he burned unpublished manuscripts in the fireplace. His on-again, off-again fiancée, Felice Bauer, was like Marilyn Monroe in that she often didn’t wear undies. “We’ll meet again,” he told her, “but on one condition – we get divorced.” In the morning my wife angrily reported that I woke her in the middle of the night laughing in my sleep.
Howie Good
Howie Good's latest book is Frowny Face, a mix of his prose poems and collages from Redhawk Publications. He co-edits the online journal UnLost, dedicated to found poetry.
More: https://apocalypsemambo.blogspot.com/
I do believe Howie is on to something here. To unpublish manuscripts in the fireplace sounds very Kafkaesque alright. That and the degree of controlled absurdism in this piece make for a lovely read.