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No One Does It Like Tom

6/3/2011

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No one does it better than Tom Renolds.  He wished on a star and got the power to make things according to his whim and will.  That’s why there are dinosaurs on the street, a pimp for the pope, a golden moon, and the caramel ocean.  He’s the reason some folks change color like mood rings, and no one needs school (we know it all to the extent Tom does), wars flare on nights Tom is bored and millions come and go, the cemetery is full of the living, cities rise only half complete.  Tom Renolds gave us the constellation Middle Finger, the sky in changing shades (purple, red, yellow), some people turn to animals, all singers sound like Tom, and there’s no history.  Computers can talk to men and ignore women.  It’s always seventy, and the year feels nineteen-eighty.  Pregnancy is optional at a thought, most aborting done on the street when a whim is complete, fired out at a doubt.  Stacy Chambers is crucified on every street corner.  Matt Barker is plagued by demons.  But no body really knows who those people are.  God visits on occasion but never says anything. 

There are whispers of finding Tom and killing him, but he could be anyone... if he ever even leaves his castle in the sky. 

The sun sets when Tom sleeps; and he’s awake for days.  He boxes Gandhi because a movie star once wanted to, and meaningless graffiti pops up like the word Library, as if anyone ever heard of such a thing.  No one ever loses a tooth, but there is a tooth fairy – she gets more frantic with each day trying to fulfill an instinct she doesn’t understand.  Santa is a comet across the sky.  All cars are Mustangs.  There’s no need for work because we’re all rich to the point it’s pointless having cash; we can all afford everything (though China is starving).  I saw a dodo the other day.  We’ve all got southern accents and speak English with a tendency to lapse into Spanish.  Sometimes it burns to pee and everyone smokes, the clouds blanket most neighborhoods.  Littering is common, and the garbage vanishes when it starts to stink.

Someone said they were him and hated living, but I don’t know if I believe it.

My wife loves the sugar fox, one of a thousand new species one can pet and eat, but I have to fight Great Whites when I go outside.  We had children, but they grew up in a day, and we don’t know what to think.  At least there are no politicians. 

Chuck Norris is the face on every cop.  Robots serve our every need.  There are ever more stereotypes on the street.  People fall in love with ease and swap partners freely.  No one is overweight.  Most restaurants are fast food.  Sometimes some of us can fly just by thinking, but we’ve all learned not to go too high - the ability is lost without warning.  Motley Crue can be heard most hours of the day like a constant background soundtrack.  Ghosts exist but not UFOs.  The Loch Ness monster left the lake to wreck havoc throughout Scotland.  Thank god Tom was near to slay the beast. 

Sometimes the sky is a portrait of Tom, smiling down giving us all the thumbs up.

All theaters have been converted to grow weed.  No one ages and the population is growing.  Water tastes like Kool-Aid.  Bars only serve whiskey and beer.  There are no speed limits, and everyone has the best sense of direction.  I have nightmares about the T-Rex that swallowed my cousin.  For a while it rained grain alcohol, and some say there are still areas on fire from the storm, a bolt of lightning igniting the west coast.  Some days all anyone can do is smile.  I tried to kill myself but nothing happened.

No attractive woman is ever a lesbian, though bi- is prevalent.  The only sports are football, and the season runs year round.  Parts of the globe are blank spaces.  Jesus stops by every house once a week to make sure we’ve been going to church.  Air guitar makes actual sounds.  Sometimes, without warning, we all feel wasted. 

We all have guns.  I like to shoot at the sky on Portrait Days.  I shot my wife once, and she said thanks for trying.  Tom’s zeppelin castle soars over our town every two months, leading to the speculation he’s from our area.  Sometimes it drops bombs, but I’m more worried about his statue.  It arrives causing earthquakes and carries people off to lord only knows where.  Even Tom says it’s gotten a mind of its own, “What do you expect when you’re five miles tall? Cumprend-eh?”  Why he won’t rein it in is a constant mystery. 

Babies never cry.  We’ve all been on TV at some point.  Angels deliver food to your front door since there are no more groceries.  I’ve been around the world eight times (“hypersonic” travel now being possible), and it all looks the same.  Even Antarctica is a playground.  The world was fun the first few years, but these last seventy are getting stale.  Every night the entire population of the planet goes outside to look for shooting stars, assuming Tom’s tale is true, and we all make the Wish, in some variation or another, that this reality will be undone.  No one’s ever seen one since Tom did.

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    J. Rohr enjoys making orphans feel at home in ovens and fashioning historical re-enactments out of dead pets collected from neighbors’ backyards.

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