Saturday, January 18, 2025

I don't think most of this makes it into the story-- cutting room floor-- below the surface of the iceberg

my mother
WOULD 
have been valedictorian
EXCEPT 
she took her last semester off
to take classes
in junior college 

SO
some guy ended up
BEATING her
by a few decimal points 
she ended up
salutatorian 

she has a double major degree
from RICE
in MATH & GERMAN

she was a computer programmer 
before they had programs 
for that
when it was punch cards
& ROOM sized computers

she's NOT stupid 

SO
when she asked me
WHAT IS FASCISM 

I'm LIKE 
wtf is she playing at

& I had JUST had
this SHOCKing bit of brain fog
where I couldn't remember 
the governor's name

I'm LIKE 
I'm having SHOCKing brain fog
I can't quite definitions
right this moment 
USE the GOOGLE 
PHONE's in
your HAND

BUT 
since she had her cataract surgery 
she can't SEE close up
without her glasses
which she didn't want to dig out of her purse

PLUS 
we've been TRYING 
to get this CONCEPT 

ASKING the RIGHT 
QUESTION 

WHAT I REALLY MEAN 
WHAT is the
DIFFERENCE 
REALLY 
between fascism and communism 

they don't SEEM different