WAR, AND AFTER

JOEL CHACE

BLAZEVOX[BOOKS]
Buffalo, New York

War, and After

by Joel Chace
Copyright 2016
Published by BlazeVOX [books]
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced without
the publishers written permission, except for brief quotations in reviews.
Printed in the United States of America
Interior design, cover art and typesetting by Geoffrey Gatza
First Edition
ISBN: 978-1-60964-230-3
Library of Congress Control Number: 2015954034
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Sharpsburg

After using a hammer to smash open the desks jammed roll-top, they found papers
covered with sentences and the skeleton of a bat. Between physical fear of going
forward, and moral fear of going back, there is a predicament of exceptional
awkwardness from which a hidden ground-hole would be a wonderfully welcome
outlet. As our grandfathers farm was being auctioned off, we sat high up in the
dark haymow, trying to comfort his old barn dog. Syntax can be as lonely as
anything youll ever see.

Tiny saints are bits of time. Prosecutions witness claimed that the teacher had old
money; however, the statement He sinned badly brought a perplexed expression
to the courtroom artists face. On the floor, she said; thats a sign of true passion.
Mental strain was so great that I saw at that moment a singular effect mentioned, I
think, in Goethes life on a similar occasionthe whole landscape for an instant
turned slightly red. Meaningless phrases. Not ice.

Never in my life have I spoken ironically. Crafting sentences in the mindforming,

revising, rehearsing to perfectionis a beneficial employment; or can beif that
mind is right. A silence fell on every one at once, for each felt that the momentous
'now' had come. You wont believe thisnot yetbut we have your best interests
at heart. Pretty high up in his career. From late morning to early afternoon, the
lace maker worked intently, in a swath of light on a curb; only when a small cloud
finally obscured the sun, did she pull back her hands, rest them on her thighs, and
look up from her creation.

13

His only comment after watching the film was, Did they have to put in that human
hot-dog guy? Thought she was black because of her name. Carefully, precisely, he
pushed the book into its place on the shelf and had no signal that everything would
change before he again touched its leather binding. Goddamn it, sir, unhand her
immediately! Now and then a bullet from them cut the air over our heads, but
generally they were reserving their fire for that better show which they knew they
would get in a few minutes.

Your rope is our hope. He tried to explain what his mother meant, but the doctor
told him to shut up; there was no way he could translate her suffering. During that
hour, while bullets snipped leaves from a young locust tree growing at an edge of
the hollow and powdered us with fragments, we had time to speculate on many
things. Huge problems with the petard. Night started at the end of creek water. His
handwriting is neat and legible, he spells accurately, his observations are hardly
ever emotional, and he rarely mentions religion. I would like to think that he is part
of the burial party in that photograph.

There were a great many left unburied, and where they were exposed to the sun
they were as black as darkies. I will here correct an effort made on page 13.
Butterfly or penguin? Manifestly, theres a point to bad taste. She could feel it
coming, so she kept her composure whenright in the middle of the viewinghe
said, What do you thinks going to happen? He runs the place, on paper, at least.
Wrenching an answer out of that set of variables. I avoid clichs like the plague. He
was officially released about three weeks later, which meant that, as he says it, "I
was once again, legally and technically, food for powder."

14

Puts a person to a point, inside. Soak in water, and hold the dread. Just as we
started, I saw, with a little shock, a line-officer take out his watch, as though the
affair beyond the creek were a business appointment which he was going to keep.
Nothing as dead as a gray cat dead in gray rain. He takes a couple of steps but stops
abruptly when he notices a piece of paper that has been placed beside the food tray,
on a small table, which is situated slightly to right of center stage. I mean, how can
you be here? She thought that shed made it through unscathed, but when the
video of his solo began, she felt tears flowing down her cheeks.

Opposite is obvious, and well beyond. She wondered what had happened to her
grass. This narrowed the field and brought us to consider that work before us more
attentively. Again and again, hour after hour, by charges and counter-charges, this
portion of the field was lost and recovered, until the green corn that grew upon it
looked as if it had been struck by a storm of bloody hail. While photographing
those Nazi bunkers, she must have disturbed a gulls nest; swooping at her
repeatedly, one bird smeared her hair and camera lens with feces. Very soon, you
and I will meet, face to face.

How they came into the ark. Who elses dad fished in a suit coat and tie? She
couldnt look her sister in the face. In order to make it more readable, I added
periods where they seemed reasonable, and the next word was capitalized as if it
were the beginning of a new sentence. Most of the dead are now buried, but large
numbers of horses still remain and pollute the air. Wholesalers comeuppance.
That city kicked our ass. She clutched her revolver, cleared her throat loudly, and
jostled his leg with her foot. But there arent always doors.

15

It was written in a composition booklet similar to those blue exam booklets used
today for college essays, measuring approximately 8-1/2 by 6-3/4 inches, bound by
thread that had been broken or rotted, and some pages were out of order. What
youve shined. Cold and wet and exposure use up an old man, when a young one
gets over anything after a few hours of sleep and a good breakfast. Kate Smiths
subtle rendition. Human nature was on the rack, and there burst forth from it the
most vehement, terrible swearing ever heard. The crank nerved it all up.

He says It Is What It Is one more time, Im gonna rip out his fucking vocal chords.
She dared him to diagram it. Though unwilling to shear such offensive twists of
nearly pubic grit from his jaw, he also seemed unable to fully grow it out to at least a
thickness that would not serve as an embarrassment to his Division and as an
affront in the eyes of the Lord Almighty. Cartoon of a wind-blasted boulder.
Information trickled in throughout that evening but stopped altogether once night
became a thick smear of insects. Unconscionable number of tans. But one of my
officers long afterward assured me that he could have walked across the entire line
on dead bodies of my men.

Their next project will be defining the line between confusion and near confusion.
Intransitive bird. Her brilliance led to all those unparalleled constructions.
Suddenly a stir beginning far upon the right, and running like a wave along the line,
brought our regiment to its feet. That diarist almost always eschewed the use of
periods to end sentences. It is clear that he has been rendered unconscious,
probably by drugs, and that this is his first coming to since the end of the last
scene. Gabbing actually accomplished a great deal. Not ice. And for my next trick,
Im going to make syntax appear right before your eyes.

16

That prospect was far from encouraging, but an order came to get ready for the
attempt; our knapsacks were left on the ground behind us. He was forced to invent
an entirely new pattern of abuse. In and of itself, the speech was rather
disappointing, though wed glued ourselves to its allusions. To painstakingly split
an infinitive. Whatever happened in that room would have remained a mystery if it
hadnt occurred to us simply to ask. Not today, sweetie, she said with great
difficulty to her child; she barely lifted her head off the chaise, then added, Please.
A creek that ran red with blood.

Meaningless phrase: no such thing. As soon as he stepped out of the tent, he

realized how drunk he had become; he thought of himself as Elastic Man, hurling
off in several different directions. During her final years, she suffered under an
illusion that someone had invented a remedy for rascals. As we stood looking upon
that brilliant pageant, I thought, if I did not say, "What a pity to spoil with bullets
such a scene of martial beauty!" What weve done has mostly accumulated. Stitchs
itch refreshed. The longer you stay in bed, the more you stretch time.

Here, recourse was had to strategy. When we asked him where the battleground
was, he said, "You are on it now. In all of her great paintings, she named things.
Sign that reads: Please HelpNeed More SignsThis Is My Last One! Untutored
failure. We thought we heard water running though it actually was someone
moving a table. This one raves about the main points, while that one keeps the
records. The wounded gray-haired hero called out: "My boy is here dead, and I
shall go soon; but it is all right." He claimed he was rebuilding a drum.

17

Glorious thought that there are still some of Christs faithful servants remaining,
who are privileged, and have the spirit to meet and worship Him, even upon a field
of battle; but mail goes in a few minutes, and I must close. The escapee came to a
bad end in the south, making a face and then collapsing. When I get back into this
again, Im going to commit. Habits don't wear well on them. Reads, and sticks to it.
We were getting ready now for a charge proper, but were still lying on our faces.
Just prior to summer recess, they managed to ram through the bill on timeless
average. Begins to weep.

He lies motionless for a few seconds, then brings one or both hands up to his eyes
and his forehead. Being clear is. Fixing all her students with her good eye, she
continued, But never, ever begin a sentence with Because! The plant was a
hassle. That was fresh anxietythe scales were turning perhaps, but which way?
With precision of step and perfect alignment of a holiday parade, this magnificent
array moved to charge, every step keeping time to tapping of a deep-sounding
drum. What stars do in the field. O.K., Mister Blister.

Her embarrassment was enveloped in rising noise, but she ducked, anyway. Ill
come back when you have a right retrospect on this matter. If we can get anything
to eat, or anything to sleep on except open ground; or under, save sky; if we can see
a house that is not riddled with shot & shell, or left tenantless through terror; or if
we can get a glimpse of a woman who does not exceed the requirements for
sweepers in College, we think we are in Paradise. Found in a broken chair. For the
second performance in a row, he bounced onstage without wearing his codpiece.
Bank tellers and small types all around.

18

All citizens have deserted their homes, but the male portion are doing good service
in carrying off wounded with their spring wagons. Under oath, she testified that
she owned that direction. Ripe as a flowering shrub. Something had plastered an
aww-shucks look all over his mug. They changed the prop into something halfhuman but with a better sound. I see again, as I saw it then in a flash, a man just in
front of me drop his musket and throw up his hands, stung into vigorous swearing
by a bullet behind his ear. On each side of an article. The priest persevered, telling
her that she looked striking in black.

It must have been true, for correspondents said so, and editors confirmed it.
Sideways drift showing a general path. First you draw; then you play; then you
throw your card away. She said, My name feels so different these days! Only a
quitter does. Those used to be worn by old poets. I remember looking behind and
seeing an officer riding diagonally across the fielda most inviting target
instinctively bending his head down over his horse's neck, as though he were riding
through driving rain. They thought it was a bridge, but it turned out to be a baby.

He told the dentist just to forget it. The sunburned woman had long, powerful
arms, and wore an enticing perfume. Many men fell going up that hill, but it
seemed to be all over in a moment, and I found myself passing a hollow where a
dozen wounded men layamong them our sergeant-major, who was calling me to
come down. Just making the bread, as they say. But when you came to hunt for this
particular itch, it was always the next regiment that had it. Dispatching unholy
sounds. Although often confused and sick in mind, her surpassing intelligence can
shine through.

19

I fell forward and lay unconscious with my face in my cap; and it would seem that I
might have been smothered by blood running into my cap from this last wound but
for an act of some enemy soldier, who, as if to save my life, had at a previous hour
during battle, shot a hole through the cap, which let the blood out. Called that
because it lessens each day. Soon after she landed and rolled in, she landed the
role. Get off my ladder. With his hand on the doorknob to his wifes office, he
paused, realizing that the news he bore would condemn her, also, to searing
anguish. Poison to a religious man.

You have to see to look around. Up to that point, she had lived terrified of the New
Testaments final book, afraid even to pronounce its name. He thought, as he gazed
at the county jails grimy faade, how strange it was that in a cell somewhere in
there was a guy who used to ride the school bus with him. The sun had not yet fully
risen and was already horrid such that it beat down like an angry gentlemans hat
on all necks of the assembled Division. Thats not funny! the child screamed at
her imaginary friend. Showing in a minuet their full position lying in 2 Deep Cut
roads in form of a perfect L. I was wrong when I wrote.

She waded into the river, up to her thighs, and felt current tugging her dress tightly
against her buttocks. He found out later that those four men had followed him all
night and would have beaten him to kill if hed pulled his car over even for a
second. Oh, Moon, turn blue. Nothing succeeds like success in military events, and
nothing fails like failure. Arrondissement, her favorite word to see and say. I found
his remains and marked his grave. Master was disturbed by matters of course.
Flickering red lights.

20

You can make soup out of it. Who could come out safe to tell their tale. There are
three 2s in the English language, but only one thew. In coolness of the cementfloored garage, the little girl stood in just her underwear and high heels, helping her
grandmother shuck corn. A raised desk in an old church, with the Lamb set out on
it. At that same instant, a youth, not over fifteen, who had his arm torn by a shell or
ball, came up holding his bleeding member in his other hand. Only when you pay
for them on time.

Not quite, if it makes you feel any better! She pocketed two tiny scented candles:
the only time in her entire life that she ever stole. Right after their concluding
seminar, the professor pulled that student aside and said, When I think of what
youve contributed to this class, the image that keeps coming to mind is a single turd
floating in a toilet bowl. People, reputedly. Soldiers were given water and bread
by handkerchief-waving ladies, who stood at their gates. Wages are their opposite.
It was an awful place to put a battery: in front of two haystacks, and with its flank
within easy musket length of the enemy. Every single fucking day, she whispers.

We killed all their first line; their next line came out of the woods just as we
reloaded, and they too were laid like the rest. Our organization goes to work at
night. He awoke in misty early-morning light, with his head resting on a fresh cowpatty. I find that secondary only to good health and provisioning of an army,
careful grooming of facial hair is the most potent calmative that could ever be
prescribed for dyspeptic morale. The oracle was finally replaced. Must be changed
to make them charming.

21

Classic betrayer. Petite and entirely bald, the woman sat quietly, alone in mid-May
sunlight; she was naked, each article of her clothing folded and placed in a pile
beside her on the bench. Dont make your problem my problem, boy. There
certainly is a point to wild mice and crazy noons. I fear you have not a high idea of
my position. Liking to fiddle around with large things. While leading his regiment,
he had fifteen balls shot through his hat, beard, and uniform, but he emerged from
battle without a wound.

All the inside cottage windows had been gnawed by a squirrel, which they found
curled up dead on a tri-cornered pillow in a back bedroom. Those photographs
were the first, on any significant scale, of that sort of thing. Where they fell.
Calculating messages caused great frustration; they didnt sink in, he complained,
because there werent enough stoppages of time. Seems she existed twice.
Stragglers come in from the field, some wounded, some tenderly escorting
comrades who are wounded; it generally takes two or three to perform this service
for one man, and all hands wear a gloomy countenance and limp. The green bocce
ball nestled right up against the pill.

He crept to its very edge, then looked far down into fjord waters. You have to
choose to get sort of dead around it. My rubber blanket is not quite big enough to
accommodate ever so sweet and welcoming a guest on rough hill sides, or in
drenching valleys that constitute my changing homes. Inexplicably shallow. Even
out on the river it was so steamy hot that the barge poleman had to wipe his face
with a huge red handkerchief. Impacted. A victory is fine for lads, yes, but it will
fade in their thoughts as quickly as a moon courses through its cycles. Used to little
account.

22

Does not your innocent little head imagine that I could get a photograph taken
here? My stars! Shielding his eyes for several seconds. Sensing that she would
emerge transformed, she wandered through the hall filled with sculptures. His men
did not all behave well at first, but they had a hard fight of it and lost tremendously.
This fever chart of public opinion. Batteries usually are in this condition. She was
shoved from the roof of the toy factory, which had been abandoned for decades. If
you have an opportunity, please send me 2 pairs of my blue woolen socks; I like
them rather better than Government issue.

Bomb collects sentences. Not ice. Our batteries are playing on them, which hurries
their time, so that they begin to show signs of unsteadiness. Expressed by
newspapers, letters and diaries kept by ordinary people. The effect was appalling.
If you wait for an auspicious opportunity, you may never score. After a bit of this
groping, the actor holds his stomach, then head, then half-collapses from a sitting
position, back onto his bed. There were no troops at that point to keep the line, and
things looked squalley and doubtful. Modest maidens. This land lies as they
changed it.

Effluvia arising from conditions of these grounds is intolerable, quite enough to

make a person in perfect health sick, and how men can recover in such a place is a
mystery to me. A sign, soft music. Not my same old town anymore, she thought.
This, perhaps, was not literally true; but the statement did not greatly exaggerate
such a shocking slaughter. They had never seen one before, but there it was, sitting
in an enormous nest high up in the Spanish bell tower. Oh, you mean the libretto,
he sneered. Free high-jinks.

23

She always grabs up the paper, greedily. It would slit some eyeballs. As they
walked through the hay field and moved slowly away from their house, the older
boy put his arm around his little brothers shoulder, then explained that what had
just happened back on the porch meant that their grandfather was now dead.
Deranged slave. Shot and shell went fluttering over our heads like partridges for
sound. When I caught up to them, they were as lively as a set of crickets. In that
infinite economy of the human races advance, it may have been worth what it cost.

Where that original book is, if he did indeed recopy the original, remains a mystery
as does so much surrounding this man. All supplies they took away was pillage and
extortion. Contemporary Mesopotamia. Fine old man, that was the last I ever saw
of him, as he was shot a few moments after. She virtually spat in the nuns face as
she screamed that she would not accept an average grade. His white-tipped cane
tap, tap, tapping, he stopped at the crossing, placed his hand on a tiny womans
head, and remarked, Very sorry, but arent you usually a garbage can? Gunmen in
movies.

Ordinary troops. She gave them the definition of denouement, then began sobbing.
He trimmed all but his right thumbs fingernail, whichduring intercoursehe
would press along her flank until she came. A large number have professed faith in
Christ, while many others are deeply concerned on accounts of sin; today Brother
Willis baptized fourteen, seven of whom are from his regiment. Single, bare light
bulb, hanging from a ceiling cord. No one there wanted to meet her once it was
known that she had majored in languages.

24