***
Chilly April
Friday morning
Surreal Chicago thoughts
***
I am sitting in my
Silent store
Overflowing with
Wrinkled history
Printed on
Gently yellowing newsprint
Dusty floor
to
Dusty ceiling
***
Very aware
that the
Current generation
is quite happy
With
“virtual”
and
Has no interest in
or
desire to own
“actual”
***
Twenty-something couples
Wander in here
Usually mystified
Sometimes I use the analogy:
***
“So, would either of you prefer a virtual kiss
instead of the real thing?”
***
And they smile
At each other
But they don’t comprehend.
***
Surrounded by 150,000 periodicals
I muse to myself:
Did I ever sell
Any of these old magazines
As a teenager
At my now
Ghostly
Bob’s Newsstand
In Hyde Park
To someone
on 51st street
Forty years ago?
***
And did their grandchild
Sell it back
To a much older me
Because they had
No interest
Not a whit of
Curiosity in
Ancient News
Printed on paper?
***
If I had
Magic glasses
That could make
any magazine
Which had my fingerprints
Still on it
Glow
with a blue tint
Would anything in here
Light up?
***
Would everything?
***
Like Monarch Butterflies
Returning to
Mexico
Are
All my
Surviving magazines
returning
To me?
***
Will I be found
Some equally grey day
Buried under a
Cascading
Never-ending
Paper Waterfall?
***
Pages & Pages & Pages
of:
Time
Newsweek
Playboy
Geographic
Vogue
Colliers
Life
***
Chicago Daily News
The New York Times
Countless color
Comic Sections of
Extinct American newspapers?
***
When
Print on paper
Itself is
But a memory
of
The very Old
and
Very stubborn
Readers of real news
Who once could:
***
Hold it in my hands!
Damn it!!
***
Who never accepted
Virtual
Even when they
Themselves
Became–
***
Weathered
Wrinkled
and
Forgotten
Old News
***
***********************
Publishing News!
Bob Katzman’s two new true Chicago books are now for sale, from him!
Vol. One: A Savage Heart and Vol. Two: Fighting Words
Gritty, violent, friendship, classic American entrepreneurship love, death, heartbreak and the real dirt about surviving in a completely corrupt major city under the Chicago Machine. More history and about one man’s life than a person may imagine.
Please visit my new website: http://www.dontgoquietlypress.com
If a person doesn’t want to use PayPaI, I also have a PO Box & I ship anywhere in America.
Send me a money order with your return and contact info.
I will get your books to you within ten days.
Here’s complete information on how to buy my books:
Vol 1: A Savage Heart and Vol. 2: Fighting Words
My books weigh almost 2 pounds each, with about 525 pages each and there are a total together of 79 stories and story/poems.
Robert M. Katzman
Don’t Go Quietly Press
PO Box 44287
Racine, Wis. 53404-9998 (262)752-3333, 8AM–7PM
Books cost $29.95 each, plus shipping
For: (1)$3.95; (2)$5.95; (3)$7.95; (4)$8.95 (5)$9.95;(6) $10.95
(7) $11.95; (8) $12.95; (9)$13.95 (10)$15.95 (15)$19.95
I am also for hire if anyone wants me to read my work and answer questions in the Chicago/Milwaukee area. Schools should call me for quantity discounts for 30 or more books. Also: businesses, bookstores, private organizations or churches and so on.
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