December Chronicle by Nine Postma
Wit(h)nessing
What phrase should I use so you understand what I mean? I am only asking for a friend. I am only asking because I want to know.
Are you hearing these things I am saying to you?
That’s okay.
Am just expressing thoughts that came in and are passing through as we speak, perfectly natural, noting to worry about.
Not sure if it is working though.
Do you find it satisfactory?
No inside joke is funny from the outside. What about jokes as a form of improvisation?
Humor.
Hah! Is the effect. Affect.
Bodily reaction combined with strong emotion. Shoulders moving in a vertical manner, facial expressions going crazy like you never see on the photo of your drivers’ license.
Don’t smile. Sit up straight. Say thank you and please. Okay. Am drifting off.
Last week the following was stated by reliable source in the supermarket (vegetable aisle): Mind my words, in twenty years, we are all going to be slaves!
The man on the horse approaches. Smiling teeth, probably white, though not close enough to see whether they are stained by mornings of Italian coffee and evenings of French wine. Purple jacket. He loves the audience. More smiles and then he stops the horse. The horse stops. The man sitting on its back made it stop walking. Right hand carrying a whip, he decides to show a trick. Make the horse show a trick. As he softly taps the horse’s leg, he says: Bèbè, say “hello”. The horse lifts its leg. Hello. We applaud and say thank you.