COOPER, Dennis
Try

Ziggy’s splayed in bed editing I Apologize, “A Magazine for the Sexually Abused.” Four or five copies have sold at this cool, mainly CD-cassette store where Calhoun, his best friend, works part-time. This’ll eventually be I Apologize No. 20. Last time Ziggy checked it was 1:37 A.M. At the moment he’s hunched over, filling up most of page eight with a self-portrait. Him scared. Not bad considering the nothing technique. Tick, tick, tick, tick . . . When Ziggy thinks his depiction’s okay, i.e., now, he moves the pencil to a different locale on the page, gradually clogging this straggly figure’s surroundings with words. Don’t panic get a grip you don’t have to sleep if you don’t want to. They’re twisting and winding all over the fucking place. Very . . . psychedelic? “Hm,” Weird how professional it looks. Last weekend, scribbling that sentence on a loose scrap of homework, he’d felt like “auditioning for a snuff film,” as Uncle Ken joked one time. ‘shit.” He owes that old psychotic a call. 1:59 A.M. 

Published by Grove Press, 1995
Literature