left out in the rain

left out in the rain

fiction
edward w pritchard

My life is not like a house of cards,
more like a tinker toy house is my life
that  two six year old children left out in the rain
when they had to come into the parlor suddenly for Sunday lunch at grandma's
and the steady rain, wind and drizzle
shrunk and folded
the green plastic tinker toy fan blades
hooked to the tinker toy unpainted wooden stick pieces
supporting the tinker house structure
that once were my plans and dreams
for a life less than ordinary

a substitute teacher reinvents christianity

a substitute teacher reinvents christianity

fictiojn
edward w pritchard

She was very tired slouching in an old chair in the teachers break room when she reinvented christianity in her own mind at least. Someone had left a tattered bible on the edge of the  screechy over stuffed chair as she was about to nap opened to Isiah. Glancing to a passage underlined in red she watched as the letters rearranged themselves to read

go out and tell some one the secret news

clever, classless and free

clever, classless and free [1]

fiction
edward w pritchard

Perhaps capitalism is the virus, here, in America, like the good witch of the North is the good witch, a horse of a different color. Always there, smiling and blushing, staring out of a billion pages of treaties, constitutions, laws, rules, regulations and taxes. A little tired perhaps but always invisibly on the job.

See the interactive map of pre-Columbus America. See the small red stain start at Jamestown and Plymouth rock. See the red color saturate every river. See the red stain connect spread and saturate up every ancient sacred burial mound looking for treasure. See the States form on the interactive map roughly conforming to disappearing tribal hunting grounds. See the religions disappear. See the settlers work, and struggle, save, plan and worry.

See the 300 million people rushing about. See the people pay the fees to renew their license plates, have their grocery and pizza delivered and drive a driver-less vehicle.

Capitalism has a right to be a little tired here in America.

you can't choose your parents/ part 2

you can't choose your parents/part 2

fiction
edward w pritchard


Judge- Why are you here

John Ruskin - I am here to testify on Pritchard's behalf

Judge- aren't you John Ruskin British art critic long dead who wrote "the stones of Venice"

Ruskin-yes, but I also wrote criticism about what constitutes good writing

Judge- well Pritchard has been accused of in addition to plain bad writing of misusing the pathetic fallacy in "you can't choose your parents" [part1] by having a Mother in a short story find some potato sacks near a railroad tracks and sew them into a suit for a high school graduation for her son
who must either work in the coal mines the rest of his life or get killed in the military

Ruskin-not  guilty of the violation of the pathetic fallacy for I specifically state throughout my criticism to violate the pathetic fallacy with exaggeration or lack of a suitable noble purpose can be done only in poetry not plain writing, good or bad such as short stories, novels etc.

Judge-thanks you Mr.Ruskin, but please do tell us about yourself and rose la touche

Ruskin-no I don't talk about that but if you like scandal read about myself and James Whistler

following Seymour Glass and Iris Murdoch up and down the isles at the grocery store

following Seymour Glass and Iris Murdoch up and down the Isles at the grocery store

fiction
edward w pritchard

For a master detective or even just an ordinary cop driving his cruiser on his beat the hardest surveillance job in police work is following a cross town bus up and down the streets of a small city
without being conspicuous. The bus keeps stopping and starting and the officer plays his role by pretending over and over to be looking up street names and directions on a folded up map.

That's how it was for me last Friday night shopping in the ice cream isle at my local store following Seymour Glass and Iris Murdoch up and down the isles at the grocery store. I wanted more than anything to listen to their intriguing conversations but did not want to intrude or be too obvious and draw unwanted and unwarranted attention to myself.

When Seymour is doing anything he gets into it all the way. It took him nearly twenty minutes to pick out an ice cream product for their upcoming after brunch Sunday at the park dessert soiree. So many words were minced to choose chocolate or vanilla, vegan or chemical product.

With Iris its always about relationships, philosophy and metaphysics. Her voice is soft and doesn't carry so I had trouble at times eaves dropping but no matter with Iris the elan of her thoughts is the thing. Once Iris stared me straight in the face as I was pretending to read the ingredients list in a pack
of  Eskimo pies. I don't know all the facts but to clear up one thing about Iris I could tell from her smile she likes men,even older ones being a little too nosey and maybe too familiar.

When one of the store employees brought a mop into our isle to clean up a broken glass bottle of Hershey's syrup I had to leave.

As I walked off with my back turned I heard Seymour doing to be or not to be in a falsetto mock British voice like Dick Van Dyke used to bring authenticity to his characterization in Mary Poppins.
That Seymour sometimes he is just an imaginary character, not authentic at all like Iris Murdoch, or myself or the expired actor Dick Van Dyke.

you can't choose your parents

you can't choose your parents

fiction
edward w pritchard


Technically Lacy and I weren't cousins at all having the same Mother but different father's but right there on the program of high school graduation for Morgan town high 1942 it listed Ma as Lacy's Mother and me as his cousin. Technically as well this wasn't Morgan town's graduation but Osage's a
mining town about eight miles from Morgan town where the coalmines were located and because of the War  Mr. x owner of the Mining company had donated use of the company store in Osage for the graduation ceremony of the auxiliary students from Osage receiving their high school diploma. Just Lacy and Sharon X,  Mr. X's only child  were graduating and of course Sharon was valedictorian coming from the wealthiest family in this part of the State and Lacy was headed for work in the mines.

No matter to Ma, she spent two days sewing Lacy a  new graduation suit from a few old potato sacks
someone had abandoned out by the railroad tracks. More than anything Ma wanted to see Lacy walk across the stage. So I sat with Ma listening to Sharon X drone on about her plans at the Ohio State University come fall and I worried I would be fired if I was late for my four o'clock shift at the mine. I kept thinking maybe I should ask Mr. X for a note explaining why I was late to work today.

No matter to me either really. Me and lacy had signed up yesterday for the War and with any luck  we will be shipped overseas to fight the Japs or Germans soon. Secretly I wished as I sat there on a broken egg crate listening to Sharon X talk about sorority life at OSU maybe Lacy and me would get blown up defending our country and my younger brother Lacy wouldn't have to work underground whacking out coal 4 pm to midnight for the rest of his life should he survive military service to his county.

downtown Akron isn't there anymore

downtown Akron isn't there anymore

fiction
edward w pritchard

Jericho S. Ballard head of maintenance and street repair how we wish you were still with us.

Downtown Akron isn't there anymore. The buildings are all half demolished and the streets are all half rubble.

The people who live there look at their cell phone when you try to talk to them and Domino's pizza delivers product to 100,000 hot spot locations but no homes since everybody rents or stays temporarily with casual acquaintances.

When will the mayor's office reopen Akron U college and who will decorate Christmas the downtown windows at Polsky's and M. Oneil's Department stores now that you are gone to heaven Jericho S. Ballard?[1]

[1] John S. Ballard was mayor of Akron in the halcyon days of our youth

we are an anachronism everyday

we are an anachronism everyday

fiction
edward w pritchard

I recently did some intensive reading and writing on the American civil war, over one hundred books which I bought and underlined up, starred and asterisked in a scholarly way completely; and I have decided after historical and philosophical thought and judgment that we all are an anachronism  everyday no matter when in history or location we find ourselves living, breathing and thinking.

As example Robert E. Lee receives much criticism for loyalty to a cause condoning slavery and slavery's accouterments by current members of American society.

Likewise could a future strong pacifist curse northern civil war soldiers and General Grant for slaughtering men and horses whatever the cause or reasons.

We, you and I undoubtedly have beliefs and habits that some future citizens will find appalling and barbaric. Perhaps such as our actions towards the handicapped persons of the world.

Basic human rights. Walk with your head bowed we have much to think about.

we see they are partitioning old Englande again

we see they are partitioning old Englande again

fiction
edward w pritchard

We see they are partitioning old Englande again. As far as our clan is concerned and we don't get involved in a scrap lightly, we blame it on the Scottish; and we are throwing down the gauntlet.

Naturally with the Scots it was a matter of money. Mickey Oodouleyhan of the Irish Catholics of Notre Dame, Indiana owed the McmcDonald's clan 46squid for some cheeseburgers the Oodouleyhan's children had charged on credit, the eldest Mickey refusing to pay his children's bill,
the family being vegan and the McmcDonald's had thrown one of the Oodouleyhan children out of the tree house children's play area there at McDonald's nearly breaking her leg.

This is a call to arms of all good Englishmen in America to teach the Scots a lesson, even if we have to help the Irish of Notre Dame to do so. Let's get on with partitioning the old County over there in Europe. Why is it taking so long to break away from the European mainland and can it possibly be true that our leader of the entire Parliament in London recently, was a Woman.

things weren't the same anymore

things weren't the same anymore

fiction
edward w pritchard

Sometimes when he was lost and confused like this it helped or at least was comforting to himself to slowly take stock of where exactly he was and what he carried on his person, in his pockets, what he was wearing,especially the shoes,  for he remembered specifically he wasn't to ask just anybody for assistance. Then forgetting everything he should know he walked up to a woman in the corridor and said "shoes"? She rushed off obviously upset.

a little later he checked his pockets.there was no wallet. that was upsetting for of course there should be a wallet,a fine one with say four tightly folded hundred dollar bills in the compartment near the drivers license and credit cards for emergencies. four dollar bills and an ironed white handkerchief, that's all he found. too bad there was no writing on the hanky for ID and if he found the wallet he could look at the drivers license or credit cards and look at the name to see who he was. Panicked he worried if he could read.
as he walked he thought sometimes people travel in disguise or incognito, he remembered that word easily when he needed to draw it up, from his subconscious,he remembered that too.

Chicago in mind by albert ammonds

Chicago in mind by albert ammonds

fiction
edward w pritchard

After I bought my railroad tickets at 2am to Chicago at the train station in Cleveland behind the football stadium I had $15 left for the remainder of the trip. Mostly I looked out the windows into the backs of the buildings and homes across the Midwest until we arrived in Chicago. I didn't talk to anyone on the train.

Arriving in Chicago about 9am I went to a small unpretentious diner about a mile from the train depot and had a good breakfast of eggs and beans and I said a few compliments to the  Mexican cook who was also my waitress. I gave the Mexican guy a five dollar tip as I paid my $7.55 food bill. His cooking was that good but since I only had $2.45 left I went back to the train station and hung around there until the 9pm train to Cleveland pulled in to take me home.

I enjoyed the scenery on the trip home but I didn't get to talk to anyone much on the train. When we crossed the border into Ohio I tried to hum a few bars from "Chicago in Mind" by Albert Ammonds to keep myself company. Soon though I had to stop for that is a difficult tune to hum to and to remember.

Sometimes I like to go over to Chicago for a change of scenery. But you know how it is,"wherever you go there you are ", and all that.

1453 at 4am

1453 at 4am

fiction
edward w pritchard


Constantinople has fallen to Turkish invaders and the walls are breached.

Pompey has been incinerated.

Two galaxies collided creating a creeping black hole across a billion miles of silent space

Half of the coral in 7 oceans has been destroyed by global warming threatening life as we know it

I am here and she is there permanently apart

Destroy the universe anew

Chaos has conquered creation and I can't sleep alone

soldiers get edgy sometimes

soldiers get edgy sometimes

fiction
edward w pritchard


We were about a quarter mile from the front over there in France on a dark rainy evening on the second floor of a bombed out old chateau with no food, no blankets and the sound of the huge guns twenty miles off meticulously destroying one picturesque French town at a time.

As he jumped to his feet Williams startled me from my revelry with his cursing as he jammed the heavy wooden butt of his rifle through bedroom wall knocking a twelve inch hole below the pictures of the small family.

Next morning just before dawn Edwards and William's whispering interrupted my dreams of the French girls standing along the river as we marched along the other night just before wire patrol.

Cracking one eye open I watched Edwards mixing muddy water, sticks and dirt in his helmet with his bayonet as he taught Williams how to repair a blemish in the wall of an old chateau.

there's always something that you don't know

there's always something that you don't know

fiction


There's always something that you don't know.

Stop.

Sit by a raging river and listen.

Stir in your sleep and direct your dreams to reveal to you the secret in Babylonian symbols.

There's always something that you don't know.

Huzun

Huzun

fiction
edward w pritchard


this flat world
black without hope
History as failure
remembrance as defeat
desperate we sit
the air is dead
the past is constraint
now is gloom

more horses than men died at the battle of Lisbon, Ohio Saturday July 25,1863

more horses than men died at the battle of Lisbon, Ohio Saturday July 25, 1863

fiction
edward w Pritchard

These oral memories from former slave Rufus [ no last name] as archived for the works progress administration [wpa] April 1932.

State your name please

When I became a Christian in 1883 my name became Moses Win but while a slave I was called Rufus

Where were you a slave at

I was born in Virginia at Clarksburg [now West Virginia]. When I was six I was sold at auction in Wheeling [ WVA] where I was permanently separated from my Mother and sister. I was taken to Lexington Kentucky where I worked at a horse farm as a slave for the Allen family. In 1859 I was sent to Alliance, Ohio to care for Roswell Allen's dying aunt Miss Martha Allen. Although I was still a slave in Ohio [technically, legally?] during the course of the Civil War I became emancipated in 1866 [14th amendment].

Did you know Captain John Morgan in Lexington Kentucky?

Yes sir. Captain Morgan and his brothers bought many fine blooded blue grass horses from the Allen family and I often delivered the horses to Captain Morgan's riding stables in Lexington where he and his fellows of the Lexington rifles trained and practiced riding and shooting from 1857 till I left Ky in 1859. Later after the battle of Gettysburg I heard that Morgan's raiders were attacking Ohio [in July 1863]. I became a soldier in the Ohio  home guard near Lisbon, Ohio. I believe I was one of the first black soldiers to fight in the Civil War from Ohio.

Tell us about the battle there at Lisbon, Ohio July 26th 1863 against Captain John Morgan and his raiders

We black men from the area were fighting because we thought captain Morgan would send captured colored folks back south into slavery like had recently happened at the battle of Gettysburg on July 04, 1863 by General Lee's armies.The white persons in the Ohio home guard were fighting to defend their families from raiders. Captain Morgan and his men had robbed a few banks and businesses and more than once threatened to burn a town in Ohio or Indiana if a large ransom wasn't paid by ordinary people. We thought at the time, Morgan's raiders had ridden into into Ohio with 10,000 men and these soldier's were the best horse soldiers in America then, excellent shots with a rifle and were equipped with the the best horses. Then professional soldiers from Ohio were fighting in Virginia or in the West at Vicksburg or down that way. That's why we needed a home guard of volunteer amateur soldiers and how things became desperate enough to allow black men to fight. Also there were many pacifists in Ohio then, like religious Quakers who wouldn't fight and Copperheads,who were Ohio democrats against continuing the civil war. Many people said at the time that the copperheads would organize, rise up and help Morgan's men to subdue Ohio and negotiate an end to the civil war; allowing the Confederacy to succeed and slavery to continue. That's why I was willing to fight even though my wife was against it.

Please go on and explain what you mean by "more horses than men died at the battle of Lisbon, Ohio Saturday July 25, 1863?"

May I have a drink of water?

to be continued

[later]

Please Mr.Win go on

We started to march down to Lisbon, Ohio on Friday July 24th and arrived just North of town about 6 pm Saturday the 25th.There were about five hundred of us.We had marched about 36 miles in two days and I was tired from the walk although I was in good shape having always done manual labor. We did not have uniforms but most of us had good rifles because Mr Halley our captain had confiscated rifles from men who could not fight or pacifists in the Alliance area. That Saturday we setup camp in the woods along a long stretch of road on the Wellsville to Cleveland Pike which was
considered the most likely place that Morgan's raiders would pass through on their way to Northern Ohio or Lake Erie. At the time we thought that Morgan's raiders were invading Ohio with plans to attack Cleveland or Ravenna. The Wellsville road just South of Lisbon runs down a long steep hill for about half a mile and then as it enters the Salem, Ohio area up another hill close to a mile long. The area around the road there is heavily wooded,a perfect place for an ambush. We had an excellent supper as our wives and sweethearts had spent days cooking to send us to war fully provisioned. We were scared of Morgan's raiders as we did not know where they were, when they would come, and how many there would be.We did know they were excellent marksmen and had superb horses. My wife had just had a fight with me two days before, worried about me being  singled out to be killed by the confederates who did not accept the idea then of colored soldiers and we black men were sure they would take no colored prisoners should they overwhelm us. My wife had said to me afraid for my safety and in anger "Rufus your black face will be the first thing they shoot at". I hoped to prove her wrong and come home a hero to see her again and our little daughter.

After supper that Saturday night as usual the colored men got the worse jobs. Captain Halley our leader had us ten colored men select the best rifles with the longest range and then he had some of the men set four horses loose running down the Wellsville pike road. We colored  troops were ordered to shoot the horses as they ran from a long way off to demonstrate the effectiveness of the new rifles and  the practicality of shooting a horse,  a much bigger target than an enemy soldier charging down a hill during an ambush on a steep decline. I am sure I hit and killed one of the horses which troubles me to this day. We were all, the home guard soldier's, ordered should battle occur to shoot and aim at horses not men as the men would die from the fall should his horse be shot while charging.

The next day was Sunday July 26th and we saw no action during the capture and surrender of Morgan's remaining raiders about ten miles away from Lisbon at Salineville. Morgan's raiders were down to less than a thousand men at the time of the surrender. Since there was no confederate raiders killed at Lisbon and no battle of Lisbon on July 25th or 26th I believe I am correct to say that more horses than men died at the battle of Lisbon in the American civil war. I shot one of those horses, following orders. Although I was a member of the Alliance home guard for the next two years in the civil war I saw no more action. Much later in the 1870's I was a member of the black 10th cavalry fighting Indians throughout the American West. But that's something I don't talk about.