BURNING It TO THE GrOunD JUSt PROVeS THAT I AM OKAY BY BRIAN POLK | ART BY JASON WHITE THE DAY NERO FORGOT TO BRING HIS FIDDLE Now that his place of work was on fire, he didn’t know what else to do. At three in the morning with no one around, he felt like he should at least have a way to occupy his hands. But he didn’t bring his phone. And he forgot to grab his fidget spinner from his desk before lighting the fucker up. At least now he understood why Nero played the fiddle while Rome burned. And he was envious of the former emperor for thinking about that at a time like this. TO EXPOUND UPON FUGAZI’S, “YOU ARE NOT WHAT YOU OWN” “So what do you do?” asked a person whose name Clyde forgot, even though the two had just met. He didn’t want to answer the question, because he was sick to death of it. All the new people in his life wanted No. 137 HE WAS UNAWARE THAT HER FUTURE PLANS OFTEN INCLUDED HIM Martin had no idea how powerful Sally’s imagination was. She could daydream for hours about various different aspects of her future — to know the same thing. It’s a custom around these parts. They were asking what he did to make money. But he wasn’t on the clock. He didn’t want to talk about work. “You know when Fugazi sang, ‘You are not what you own?’” asked Clyde. The new person shook his head and said, “Um, no.” And Clyde said, “Well, they did. But what they didn’t say — at least not in so many words — is, ‘You are not what you do for a living.’ So I’m not going to answer that.” The new person was offended at Clyde’s brashness, but Clyde didn’t care. He was sick of meeting boring new people that talk about their shitty jobs anyway.
23 Publizr Home