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๐— ๐—ฎ๐˜‡๐—ฒ ๐— ๐—ฎ๐˜€๐˜๐—ฒ๐—ฟ ๐—ฅ๐—ฎ๐˜

๐˜ฃ๐˜บ ๐˜™๐˜ช๐˜ค๐˜ฉ๐˜ข๐˜ณ๐˜ฅ ๐˜ž๐˜ฆ๐˜ข๐˜ท๐˜ฆ๐˜ณ


never met the Dedalian creation he couldnโ€™t meander successfully. This baffled and befuddled those who dared challenge him down labyrinths with a myriad of radiating arms to travel. White men in white coats with puffy pockets who stared in angry disbelief as he purposefully wandered the ever expanding, twisting and lengthening corridors, not once ever making a wrong turn or backtracking. Always calmly proceeding with exactness and precision towards each new end. Disdaining to rise above on his haunches to peer over the walls. For him it was never a test of short-term memory or spatial cues. More likely than not he would ignore the treat. Sometimes he would reward his watchers with a show of disdain. Sometimes sniffing and rising up to show his teeth, sometimes defecating in the bowl before turning it over. He always preferred the water maze. He liked water and felt at home there, and somehow cleansed from the โ€œexperiment.โ€ His eyes were keen enough to see the so-called hidden island when he was lowered onto the start platform. Unfailingly he would utter eeee eee erp ( go away, you bully). Truth is, he was very impressed with one scientist who used his test on fellow researchers. Master Mazeโ€™s pals were labeled either Smart or Unintelligent. It was assumed there was factual evidence behind this. Without fail bias won out. Those who believed their rats to be smarter always proffered superior results. Master Maze is naturally proud that he can outdistance and outperform a group of collective rats. He remains unwilling to speak of his unique ability, preferring to be seen as a gnawing outlier. An enigma who twitches his whiskers in laughter and always amazes.



ย 

Post-Covid, the author has returned as the writer-in-residence at the James Joyce Pub. Among his other pubs: conjunctions, Louisville Review,ย Southern Quarterly, Free State Review, Hollins Critic, NER, Loch Raven Review, The Avenue, & New Orleans Review. Heโ€™s the author of The Stars Undoneย (Duende Press, 1992), and wrote the libretto for a symphony, Of Sea and Stars (2005). Recently, his 180th prose poem was published. He was a finalist in the 2019 Dogwood Literary Prize in Poetry.

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Speculative fiction & POETRY ZINE
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