Category: Lies

What is fact to one generation
is fantasy to another
fantasy
slow
then fast forward
as invention becomes consumerism.

Progress. Inheritance or bequest?
The Wright brothers fleeting airborne
sires jet travel.
Valves transistors and diodes
serially rearrange and contract : desktop, notebook, tablet.

The present future versus slumbering nostalgia
immobile phones
clunky photocopiers
bikes without the prefix Mt.
The sigh of memory ridiculed by comfort
except for the fantasy that now always will be.
Employment
recruiters came to universities and colleges then
no applications or resume
a single interview and letter from a professor.
Salary prescribed – start date by negotiation.

Five years later travel beckons – a decade of itinerancy
in the mid 90s a return to career and settlement.
Applications must now be typed.
Two referees
curriculum vitae
professional help is sought with the last.
A woman of indeterminate age
cheerful and irreverent
trims surplus detail – adds market skills.

For this employer a photograph 3″ x 3″ is required
a re-entrant to the workplace puzzles this necessity.
An exhalation and look
the look of a kindly aunt to a dim nephew.
“It allows exclusion the law doesn’t
gender
ethnicity
religion, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera!
A picture doesn’t need to be a thousand words sweetie.”

Memory – often tempted by remake
revision, clarification, polishing
excision of truth and fillings of fiction
smoothed by self perception.

She had been on a holiday
free from the borders of respectability
a holiday fling turned to almost romance
young and cute
he would be a trophy – for a while

Used to having her way, she will
visa refusal becomes defiance – then marriage.
Some would have settled for memories
and a T-shirt.

They had hired him
a guide
an emissary to envy
easing affluent pilgrims to mountains
where climbers are found legendary, or out
adventure – vicarious – amputated of danger.

Three weeks long enough for
contract to shrink to comfort
and what was thought exotic …. turn erotic.
Should she? The Devil wins.

Later
the plane landed at the high airstrip
haloed by the light – a shining moment – there he is
waiting
as if he had been – all his life.
She knew immediately
an aligning – two souls orbiting in synchrony. Destiny.

A decade passes
as have they from each other lives.
A mistake. He was so inadequate.
She had always known that.

Perhaps euphoria was to blame
it had not quite gone away and always saw goodwill.
Confidence had hoped for this position
reality wondered if experience could meet the reserve.
The dealer is generous
a good hand defeats better players.
That zero gravity feeling.
instant miraculous happiness. Euphoric.

A small stable staff
the employer a star in this town
the first new appointment in several years
visibility is high. Unproud pride doesn’t mind.

A conference, in the first quarter, of the first year
during coffee
a man with a wide smile and outstretched hand
the manager of the sister facility. Jovial eat and greet.
“Martin… Martin V – to everybody – even the wife ”
a piston rod hand shake and Schwarzenegger smile.
His surname is Dutch and van der unpronounceable
so Martin V it is. “Better than VD eh,” an elbow thumps my ribs.

Questions
he has a few
about academic pedigree and place of home
a head shaked sigh
excuses ancestry from the land’s most ridiculed city.

The chairman sheepdogs attendees back to task
“nice to meet you Martin.”
“Martin V,” a toothy invitation to familiarity
“better than Martin VD eh,” his elbow reconnects with ribs.

Within 12 months the Angel of Death
strikes the firstborn career
the sister facility has a vacancy
I am interviewed by Martin.
Plain Martin.
No V and no D.
No smile. And no previous introduction.
Insider trading furiously chases memory
recall can’t. His eyes disagree.