Joseph Voelbel

Opening sentence worth its weight. Pitter patter, an elongated reference to the specific, a sign of mutual adoration, the descriptive picture of a natural setting. Obligatory voice injunction. Sensual yet sophisticated dialogue studying the positioning of an element. The part where it states it has something to say. The tantalizing end-goal towards which it is barreling. Reasons it may take a while to get there.

Shiny new development of context through setting. A jovial toned bodily description, “Something booming and practical,” is spoken. “Some wititude which negates that.” A lesser known word and a comma. The things we feel when unknown words are said to us.

Introspective narrative. Strident language in the tenor of effort and tenacity. A reference to Greek mythology, particularly tragic. The part where you realize your author has an underbelly. A sudden burst of enjoying this now antiquated act of reading. Surprise.

Modest adoration of a cultural past time, e.g., baseball. A taste for its competitive nature and fascination with the mysticism of all games in general. Sudden explosion into a philosophy on the sound of a sunflower and its relation to a famous astronomer’s Latin titled book. This little known fact (perhaps the key signature of the entire compilation), which was discovered in the penultimate copy of such and such by so and so.

Shrouded so as not to reveal too much. More elongated descriptions of that something specific, now poetically homonystic. The assertion that the author’s characters either are or are not surrounded by a lot of books. Nothing in-between. A linguistic parable. The summary and point of it. The need to switch gears again, but cleverly.

At last a body of composition that demands transparency. Something about the sky inferring a metaphor for the life of a teething artist with a fierce overbite and little cathartic extrapolation.

The supposition that this narrator is in fact a have-lived type, perhaps even, an anti-hero; the listing of three quintessential anti-heroes (a Don Quixote, a Robin Hood, a Lebowski). The affirmation of the capacity to speak about literature. The processing phenomenon that is consciousness realizing itself, and the discussion of this location on paper. A furthering of that ascending spiralic trajectory until the mechanism squeaks. The part where you may have lost some people. The part where you haven’t lost others. Recollection of that attention span. Return to streamlined implication.

The need for window dressing. A bucolic way of affiliating with suburban locations. An affectation found in pop lyrics. Persistent pattern and voice.

Perfunctory admonition of too much information. The startling capacity to intrigue with raw-ness. Another more obvious attempt at taking that presupposition further than is really necessary or comfortable. A retreat from that framed by a foreknowing-ness that that furthering may return.

Incisive character crisis conveniently occurs through internal dialogue.

Actual presupposition explicated in terms of salient motifs. Surreal distention of that application by way of reference to the indeterminate. The easiest line to digest. The joke. A bitter button. Self-aware mocking of bitterness. Mirth in self-awareness of bitterness. Satisfying but not altogether excellent landing. Last words that feel conclusivesque.