The Hallucinogenic Rooster

About the Book

The Hallucinogenic Rooster is a moment captured in time, a dreamlike and nightmarish expansion of one brief moment. In a place called Fairy Tale Town, some years ago, I walked with a girl I was in love with among grimy fantasies; a concrete Pirate ship, a castle and drinking fountains in the form of hippos and tin soldiers. Strange music came over loudspeakers. Three of us (we were baby-sitting her sister’s infant) as a sort of makeshift family walked in this strange place. I watched a rooster walk in and out of shadows and light. I hallucinated that I was seeing its molecules and atoms coming apart and reassembling in bright colors. I chose this event to represent the moment when we could have spoken to each other with our hearts but instead kept our silence. . . This book is a sort of poetic expansion of that brief, lonely and beautiful moment.

About the Author

Words have their own lives independent from their function as describers of ‘real’ worlds. They hold time and place but also can help us imagine new worlds. They preserve our experience against the dismantling force of death ... This is why I’m fascinated with words. As well as a writer, I am a painter and a poet. I teach college art and film classes and work at a variety of tasks looking for satisfaction.