People often say Chinese is an ugly language, and I always disagree, except in the case of my mother. Her voice gives me a deep existential fear, like vampire teeth on a chalkboard. She’s not my real mother, but one of the few English phrases she knows is “your mother.” She says it when she’s trying to trick me. I think she might know more English than that, but speaking only in Chinese makes us vulnerable, which is how she likes it.
Badger died today. Or was it yesterday, I can’t be sure. He was hit by a Nissan Qashqai. That’s what Mole says, though his myopia, which is worse than ever, undoubtedly compromises any eye-witness testimony he might be called upon to give. It was generally agreed that Badger did not suffer – the damage to the car indicated as much. Alas, we were unable to perform the usual funeral rites for him. A passing TV crew spied an opportunity for a spot of ‘gastro-roadkill’ with their on-board celebrity chef, and they had old Badger trussed up on a spit before you could say endangered species.
As the country comes together, entranced, with a horror unseen since a wave of shootings in the 1980s, it is becoming harder to untangle the myth of Edwin Godwinsen from the reality. According to the Toronto Star, the teen’s path to extremism dates to his early years, when he showed signs of alienation. Mr. Black, chief psychiatrist at Toronto East Detention Centre, has written in the Journal for the Study of Remission that Godwinsen’s childhood fits the classic paradigm for 21st-century adult criminality. While his profile shows a highly predictive marker of high-risk youths — a predilection towards video games — it also shows more insidious signs.
With fear
And the fascination due some
Wriggling arthropod darting
Across toes and arches, into
A gap in the baseboard
Through a dim arrowslit
At a spyglass distance,
Pulsating, out of reach
At the trembling tip
Of an afflicted pointer finger
Extended in withdrawal
A widespread culling spanning generations to mask the acceleration of the mortality rate. Festering newer headcases with each automized lesson plan, our overseers are live in the field. Each new massacre brought to you in real-time loses its sparkle before the next one has time to get the ball rolling. Toddlers tainted from day 1 for no longer getting a day off of school unless the death toll reaches 1000.