May I remind you that every sentence, everywhere,
ends with a period?
—John Ashbery
“These are the rules. It’s
in the book, see? Have
you memorized every
page of it? Very good,
very good.” He pet his
pal like a dog for a mo
ment, then did a one
eighty, which happened
to have him point in the
exact direction of the
kitchen wastebasket.
Do you say wastebasket
or trashcan? What then
do you say? With book
in hand he marched
forward like a sweaty
band camp adolescent.
Until of course he reached
the aforementioned recept
acle. Into it the book went,
and rather viciously. Stan
watched his sweaty, red-
faced man as his hand came
up empty from the trashcan.
In awe of this Freudian scene,
Stan stood there for a while
filled with a frenzy of contra
dictory emotions like pride,
envy and an ever-expanding,
ball-burning love.
