letters to my enemy
john cheever, weird paul, and your bibliomancy forecast for the week of august 4
the five of wands, and a line from The Stories of John Cheever
“The Farquarsons' party was nifty, and the Bentleys had a wonderful time. The only person who drank too much was Trace Bearden. Late in the party, he began to chide Cash about his thinning hair and Cash good-naturedly began to move the furniture around.”
the aleatory
dear enemy, I am no longer satisifed to move the furniture around good-naturedly.
dear enemy, I have rehearsed your apology to me many, many times.
dear enemy, if we saw each other in six hundred years’ time I would regard you as one of my beloveds, one of my family, precisely because you are my enemy.
dear enemy, I never liked your haircut. When I said I did, it was lies.
dear enemy, there is no reason for what you have done to me.
dear enemy, if I had been a truer version of myself, we might have never been friends in the first place.
dear enemy, if disappointing you is the price I have to pay in order to become myself, I would pay it thousands of times over.
dear enemy, at the moment just before they shoot their prey, some hunters find their limbs melting into the ground, their legs spreading out for miles, their bodies becoming vaprous and large. Their awareness has become so minutely empty, so attuned to the movements of the deer, that they slip out of being human. They go home, never to hunt again. Or they will only hunt in the company of others, who are too drunk and noisy to fool any animal.
forecast
It’s a good week to pick a fight. Any stagnant part of your life can be aerated with a little bit of shit-talking.
writing prompt
write a series of brief letters to your enemy. (If you “don’t have an enemy,” I don’t want to hear it.)
a chune
“My Head’s on Fire” by Weird Paul
Oh hey, do you want to see the best music video anybody has ever made? Do you think you can handle it? Does Bethel Park, PA, still smell like those weird ice cubes that were somehow too opaque, and they weren’t just water because they left a little spitty filament of something in the iced tea after they melted? Can anybody run over real quick and check?
credits: small spells tarot deck by rachel howe
The Stories of John Cheever by JC
Lo Fidelity, Hi Anxiety by Weird Paul
dear diary, sometimes I look at pictures on the indiesleaze insta account and I just marvel at how poorly made and cheap-looking all of the clothes are. I find it absolutely charming. All of these top-of-the-food-chain hipsters, wearing garment-dye jersey and fake chains turning their necks green? Obviously, it was only their intense self-belief that gave them any power at all. XS
PS I am not talking about my peacock-print Modcloth tights that never stayed up because they were made out of the tiredest nylon, which I had to vigorously pull up over and over again because the crotch would migrate halfway down my thighs. No!