Zelda's Inferno exercise: riffing off Dutch Schultz's dying words

Posted on: Sun, 04/25/2010 - 20:30 By: Tom Swiss

Tonight's Zelda's Inferno exercise: we riffed off of the bizarre and fascinating dying words of gangster Dutch Schultz.

These were the phrases that stuck with me: "what happened to the sixteenth?... We don't owe a nickel... if he wanted to break the ring... i will be checked and double checked and please pull for me.... the sidewalk was in trouble and the bears were in trouble and i broke it up.... I am sore and i am going up and i am going to give you honey if i can. mother is the best bet and don't let satan draw you too fast.... talk to the sword."

the sidewalk was in trouble
the bears were in trouble
the people were in trouble
the city was in trouble
the skies were in trouble
the rivers were in trouble
the clouds were in trouble
and I broke it up with a word
the word is mother
mother mother mother
mother is the best bet
i am sore and i am going up
going up in flames
going up in smoke
going up to mother
going up like a rocket
going up to the moon and stars
going up to mother
so please pull for me
with a heave and a ho! heave -- ho! heave -- ho!
please pull for me
all along the line
but don't draw it too fast
no don't draw that line too fast
don't let satan draw you too fast
check and double check before you draw the line
the line between the sword and the ring
the line between the word and the thing
the line between the queen and the king
the line between to speak and to sing

And a second exercise, from a wordlist: tree hemlock strength tall sphere patient anchoring teaching

like a child's drawing of a tree as
a tall stick in the ground with a green sphere stuck on it
abstracting away the branching network, the fine texture of leaves, the roots, the insects and animals, the sunlight and soil
into brown and green cartoon scrawl
already, even without teaching, the child learns
distance from experience
the categorical mind
that sees the map rather than the territory