Beach Sloth

Becoming your Handwriting by Sam Lasko           

                ‘Becoming your Handwriting’ states we can be written in different letters. I think that’s called ‘names’. Nobody has my name except everybody. That’s the joy of anonymity. With my real name I’m even more anonymous. Sam makes this book out of himself. We are the blank pages he writes on, we exist on the internet. Humanity is the new PDF. And bones are the new pencils. At least his bones are. Your bones are probably pretty safe. 

                Poetry workshops are sweatshops for the artistically inclined. Only difference is you pay to be treated that way. Money is lost through countless workshops. I think poets sit in circles, critique each other, drink tea, and end the session by playing bongos. I may be wrong. I doubt it though. Hope their poem is unleashed on the neighbor’s trash cans. That’s a good thing. Words must be free to do what they want to do. 

                Bob Dylan needs to collaborate with Justice. Justice went to the seventies, why not the sixties? Sixties music needs a good 4/4 beat and some synthesizers. I never wrote on both pages. When I write I press down hard so the page feels it. Now I barely use a pen at all, besides to take notes on my life. Post-it notes are my new notebooks. Doubt Sam can deliver on the unicorn promise. Unicorns are from an older time. Either that or unicorns live in Vietnam now. They call them Saolas. Laos and Vietnam have a nature preserve for them. 

                Starfish have no swag. They are cute, I’ll give them that. Dolphins are nasty creatures. I like sharks, they are misunderstood. After college you sail out to sea. Land leaves you. Debt accumulates. Making friends is trickier. You are spread too thin. Jobs are scarce. Post-college (those first two years) is hard. College friends are simply that: college friends. Continue messing around. You only get a few chances to truly do nothing with your life. Do not waste the opportunity to do nothing. From nothing comes something grand. 

                Luck has everything to do with it. If you are reading this you are lucky. You have the internet. You care about culture. At the very least you know how to search for esoteric topics on Google. That’s no mean feat. Part two of the unicorn comes up. Sam manages to get a unicorn. He shows it in exchange for its privacy. Yep, that sounds like a Saola to me. They are shy. Motorcycles scare the quiet, horned creature. 

                Abandoned storage units are the best. What counts as junk? Is one man’s junk another man’s home? You are alive. Sam wants you to know you have more to live. Sun covers him. Beauty is in his world. It is in your world as well. Life is beautiful. Walk into the sun’s rays. It is Mr. Golden Sun. Hope Sam learns to smile more, smiling is important. Killing off the old you is critical. People evolve. To think otherwise is foolish. 

                Sam grows old. He writes well. Feel the positive rays of sun coming from your computer. Count the ways you are blessed to live in ________. Sam lives in New Jersey. He’s lucky to live there.