Contents
DROUGHT ON THE CASH FLOW RIVER
THE HEARTSPEAK WELLNESS RETREAT
THE POET WHO CAME IN THREE SIZES
VISITATION AT BARB’S CAFÉ, LADYSMITH, BRITISH COLUMBIA
THE LITTLE PIECES OF YOUR MIND
THE AIR IS THICK WITH METAPHORS
For Terry, Bill, and Anna
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Thanks to the Canada Council for the Arts, and to the Seaview Cultural Fund, Victoria, B.C., for generous support.
Grateful thanks also to the editors of the following publications where sections of the book first appeared: Mondohunkamooga, Toronto, 1996, “Attila the Bookseller”; Geist, 1997, “The Little Pieces of Your Mind”; Ottawa Citizen, 1998, “Gifts”; Adbusters, 1998, “Lanny Does Not Exist”; Reference West Chapbook Series, 1999, the chapbook titled “Gifts” which included “Gifts,” “The Things I Do For You,” “Whoops,” “Mrs. Bean,” “The Festival,” and “The Little Pieces of Your Mind”; Monday Magazine, Victoria, 2000, a shortened version of “Down the Road to Eternity”; Geist, 2001, “Attila the Bookseller”; Exact Fare Only: Good, Bad & Ugly Rides on Public Transportation, Grant Buday, Editor, Anvil Press, 2001, “Gifts”; Adbusters, 2002, “Darwin Alone in the Universe”; Mouth, USA, 2002, “Darwin Alone in the Universe”; All Wound Up—Alternative Writing from British Columbia, Patrick Robertson, David Samis, Vanessa Violini, Christopher Wilson, Editors, Ripple Effect Press, 2002, “Darwin Alone in the Universe”; The Art Tree, Far Field Press, 2002, Alan Brown, Editor, “The Festival”; The Wayward Coast, Far Field Press, 2003, Alan Brown, Editor “The Heartspeak Wellness Retreat”; St. Peter’s Anthology, St. Peter’s Press, 2003, Dave Margoshes, Editor, “The Mirror.”
Special thanks to Kalle Lasn of Adbusters for granting permission to use the illustrations for the title story, “Darwin Alone in the Universe,” which first appeared in that magazine.
The story, “Darwin Alone in the Universe,” contains quotes from Nuclear War Survival Skills by Cresson H. Kearny published in 1979 by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, a Facility of the U.S. Dept. of Energy. The illustration concepts for the story “Darwin Alone in the Universe” and for the cover of this book are by M.A.C. Farrant, after illustrations found in Nuclear Survival Skills (1979 edition), with additional illustration by Valerie Thai.
Photo of M.A.C. Farrant’s teeth by Dr. Ragnar Eeg, DDS, with thanks.
INTRODUCTION
Beginning a story, “Where Have All the Prophesies Gone?” I wrote: “When I was a child in the ’50s and early ’60s, everyone expected that we’d soon be eating pills instead of