Boldt Words & Images: Other Observations

A golden shovel poem¹

By Bob Boldt

“Since we both share this accommodating hell, and because I know you, like so many others, will never leave, this flaming shade will gladly tell you his confession.”²

Ghost Fish (Part 1 of a Story for my Son)

Full moon rising over the Salmon River,
less than 2 miles upstream from
where it pours into Lake Ontario
at Port Ontario, NY. This photo
was taken a few yards from where
I caught Ghost Fish – and Ghost Fish
hooked me – more than 40 years ago.

By Paul Clark (aka motomynd)

The dream always begins the same. The moon has risen barely above the horizon, turning the gently riffled current a soft, undulating gold. The fish materializes, wraithlike, mouth agape, moonlight reflecting from its broad sides; it appears huge and menacing as it surges through the shallow water directly at me.

Fiction: Jaudon – An American Family (a novel) [38]

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Chapter 38. Oil Thieves

The moon had yet to come up and the night was so dark the men were falling over things on the ground. Mr. Tompson and his four armed men were moving into position for an all-night stakeout. They found a good spot among the girders of a well across from Claude’s capped wells.

My Life [4]

I become a computer programmer

By Jim Rix

Following my stint as a high school mathematics teacher, I took a job at Lockheed Missiles and Space Company, in Sunnyvale, and began a career in computer programming. After seven months at Lockheed, I was offered a better position at Tymshare, Inc., another computer company. Tymshare transferred me to Seattle, Washington. That lasted a few years, after which I was laid off and sold furniture for a while at Levitz Furniture. I don’t think I had realized how versatile I could be.

Fiction: Drinking Kubulis at the Dead Cat Café [7]

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7. When he first arrived, Ras

[This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to any actual person, living, dead, or anywhere in between, is purely a figment of your own sick, twisted imagination. You really ought to seek professional help for that. Except for the cat, of course; that skin on the cover really is  t h e  Dead Cat, if that’s any consolation to you.]

Roger’s Reality: Karma Kitty

The Faces of Jack

By Roger Owens

Mike and Bonnie have our cat, Jackie. Mike and Bonnie live over on the next street, and Jack has essentially moved to their house. It’s OK though, because he won’t stay home anymore anyway, and at one time we had their cat. Jackie Jack never really lived at any one place; he’s always been a vagabond.
    Maybe I should go back and start at the beginning.

All Over the Place: Reparations – Part 3 (2014-2016)

Because it never ends

By Michael H. Brownstein



Because America is not fair,
Because racism needs to stop,
Because ignorance has to end,
Because the police need to know their job,
Because we no longer can put up with bullies with guns.

The Loneliest Liberal: Misguided Paths

By James Knudsen

Do you remember electives? I recently learned that one of the community colleges I’m employed at has made the decision to implement a program that eliminates one of the most cherished aspects of community colleges.

Goines On: Without exclamation

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Mrs. Goines said to Goines, “I saw you outside without a coat on.” It had frozen overnight, and the temperature was still in the 30s. It was Mrs. Goines’ way of reminding Goines he hadn’t followed one of her recommendations, which failing she seemed to him to take a bit too personally, almost as an affront.

Fiction: Jaudon – An American Family (a novel) [37]

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Chapter 37. Here Today/ Gone Tomorrow

Claude’s move back to Houston had been a good one. Through the telephone service with his people in Beaumont, he was able to be close to the action at the same time. The new century was opening like a box of candy – one happy surprise after another. In 1901, Mckinley was assassinated. The Stock Market took a dive, as did oil stock, but with Teddy Roosevelt came a calming. Things were looking up for the country as a whole. But life will always throw you a curveball when you least expect it.

Conformity and nonconformity

Food for thought

By Victor L. Midyett

My father gave me directives only. He rarely gave me food for thought. He brought me up in an atmosphere where everything was according to his “black or white.” My directive was always to follow what he said was “white,” or his way. Being by nature skeptical myself, I very early developed the attitude that in life very, very little is black or white. And what anyone tells me or directs me to do must be questioned.

Fiction: Drinking Kubulis at the Dead Cat Café [6]

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6. Tabitha Taft was sick

[This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to any actual person, living, dead, or anywhere in between, is purely a figment of your own sick, twisted imagination. You really ought to seek professional help for that. Except for the cat, of course; that skin on the cover really is  t h e  Dead Cat, if that’s any consolation to you.]

Goines On: Relics

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Goines thought he spotted a vacant handicap parking spot near the head of the row nearest Walmart’s grocery entrance. As he approached the spot, a huge rear-window version of the “JESUS SAVES” sign accosted him from a large dark vehicle in the top spot.
    Goines took a photo of the rear window, feeling strangely subversive, as though he were doing surveillance and being observed doing so, if not by a Walmart security camera then perhaps by a local police officer in the patrol car parked across the road alongside the store front between the two entrances.

All Over the Place: Reparations – Part 2

By Michael H. Brownstein











1898, election day, Wilmington, North Carolina,
the business elite include all races, all ethnicities,
lawyers and doctors, teachers and store owners,
no color boundaries, no issues with racism –
the city an integrated government duly elected –

Boldt Words & Images: The Frankenstein Monster’s Artificial Intelligence Lecture

The Oxford Union at night

Delivered at the Oxford Union, after Greg Santos’ “Hulk Smash!” poem (Hey, we could start a genre)

By Bob Boldt

Fresh from his eviction from the Arctic melting ice flow, the Frankenstein monster stops by the Oxford Union in Great Britain to express a few opinions on the artificial intelligence controversy….