The Only Avenue of Escape

The only avenue of escape was up the large stone staircase that led around and around the empty shell of the tower, towards the open-aired top of the castle.  I rushed up the first level and turned with my sword ready, well knowing its ineffectiveness against the 10-foot-tall metallic giant that was pursuing me.  It came lumbering up the stairs making a great crash with each footstep. I swung at it, hitting his sword and then ducked as it swung at me. I dealt him savage blow right to this chest, but my sword only rung in my hands.  I turned and proceeded following the staircase climbing level after level, not really knowing where it led, not that it mattered, for I was concentrating only on escape from this monster. I looked over the edge of the stairwell at the dizzying heights to which we had already climbed, then looked up to realize that there were only two levels left before I reached the top.  I turned back to the approaching giant and as he raised his sword I swung at it and knocked it from his grasp, sending it down the stairs to the previous level.  Then, to my great surprise, the giant stopped, turned and went down after it. While he did, I ran up the remaining two flights only to find a blank wall at the head of the stairs, and the long, long, drop down to the bottom of them. My mind was racing, trying to find an avenue of escape when once more the giant came up the stairs.  He didn’t even slow down when he saw me trapped, as if he had only one thing in his mind, indeed, if he had a mind at all, and that was to skewer me. Suddenly I conceived a plan, and knowing that it was my only chance, I grimly stood my ground, and waited for the coming onslaught. The giant was up the stairs now and raised his sword once more.  Before he swung I quickly lashed out with my sword, again striking his and to my relief, again knocking his from his grasp and sent it over the edge of the stairwell.  He rushed over to the edge swinging his arms widely, perhaps trying to stop the fallen sword, and as he looked down at it, I gave him a tremendous shove and sent him following.  I collapsed there, exhausted, and listened to the terrific crashing getting further and further away as the giant bounced off the sides of the stairwell and then … the hauntingly familiar laughter came from behind me as I blacked out.

When I awoke I couldn’t see clearly, but I know I was in the throne room once more.  How long ago it seemed since I had been there, when I was sentenced to die by a voice emanating from a black stone embedded in an otherwise empty throne.  But my thoughts were interrupted when I heard that same soft and yet coldly piercing laughter, only louder as I heard heavy footsteps approaching.  My eyesight was blurry and I rubbed my eyes but to no avail. Then, hearing the footsteps come to my right, I quickly rolled to my left and heard the sharp swish of my new adversary’s sword as it barely missed me.  I stood up and my eyesight returned just as a giant black-bearded man rushed at me with a hate in his eyes older than time.  I dodged his sword and saw mine lying where I had been.  I nimbly rushed over, picked it up and jumped up on a nearby table as the bearded giant missed his next swing at me. I jumped out to meet him, surprising him and with one swift hard blow I cut his head off, which fell to the floor, eyes, up still staring, still hating.  As his body sagged and fell I turned and ran right at the throne, it’s black carvings and evil designs once more writhing and moving as it had when I first looked upon it so long ago.  I saw my dark-haired Lynla whom the chair had seized, chained and standing near a wall off to one side.  I took my magic-touched sword and raised it high above my head and swung with all my might, shouting a plea to the Gods for help, and hit the dark jewel directly, shattering it and my sword in a burst of great light.  Deep claps of thunder echoed throughout the hall, as the throne burst into flames and crumbled.  I ran over and saw that Lynla’s chains had disintegrated so grabbed her hand, looking into her fiercely determined eyes, then we ran down the corridor as the castle shook and rumbled beneath out feet. I remembered where the massive iron door was and we scurried through the halls as they were crumbling and falling around us, staying just ahead of the effect. We got to the door, pushed one side open and ran out into sunlight. We reached the portcullis to find it a crumbled heap of rust.  As we passed through the archway the castle gave one last shudder, disintegrated to dust and was gone…

And so. As all that occurred many years ago, I'm not sure what I had eaten before I went to bed the night that I had those two separate-yet-connected dreams, but I'd be willing to have another helping. 

Pleasant dreams to you...

Endless Shifting Sand 1: In the Wind

(c) Michael Steven Platt 2012 : Camel Sand Imprint:  Undine Press

Dear Readers,

When last we met, life was a turmoil of things I have forgotten and things I remember but don't know what they were related to, and other such important issues, I'm sure. Stuff happened and I haven't been writing much. But now, I finally did find my way back in to this blog after some years of frustrating inability to do so.

That's the Grand Explanation as to How I've Done and Where I've Been. I wanted to keep it from getting too confusing.  I'm glad to be back... I missed you, too. (The applause is thunderous)

New effort coming through, looking for readership. It follows here:

Endless Shifting Sand 1: In the Wind

I am going to post excerpts from my book, 'Endless Shifting Sand' ... thinking that, perhaps, someone else might enjoy the offbeat humor in the surrealistic flow of smoothly chaotic imagery. Different. Wildly different. I do hope you might give it a whirl... you might enjoy it. Thank you.

Therefore, I put forth the entire Table of Contents as introduction and beginning of what ESS is. Cheers!

(Pardon the quirky alignment. The draft does not match up with the actual posting and this creates some interesting configurations of order)

(All copyrighted, of course)

This Page

Endless Shifting Sand

(or Keeping Score in the Big One)

~ Disclaim Maintain Refrain: Page Numb Baring Approximations ~

Table of Contents …………………………………………………. This Page

Chair of Intents …………………………………………………. Under the Table

Visual Selection ................................... (Under the Chair and Under Construction)

Introduction …………………………………………………….. How do you do?

Opening : If it’s time to get up this must be Monday ………...…….. 1

Part One – Part Another: Take the Wrong Way Home

Chapter One - Greetings......................................................... ..........  3

First Hourglass Spill ………………………..……………… 3

Deal With It ........................................................................... 9

Tracking Treats and Nervous Noise: Answering the Call ... 14

… tock ……………………………………………………. 18

Chapter Two (, Too)……………………………………….....…… 22

Chapter III: Growing Older in the City …………………………... 23

Pardon Yourself and The Great Peanut Butter Caper ….…. 23

Harken to Thy Will ……………………………………….. 24

A Chair is Born …………………………………………… 26

A Neu Firing Line ............................................................... 30

Which Way Do We Go? …………………………...……... 34

Nothing but the Best ……………………………………… 36

Watch Your Hat and Head ………………………………... 39

I Never and A Message from the Stars …………………… 42

This Page, Too

I Retire Undefeated ......…………………………………… 45

Feeling Game in Florida ...…………………………………47

Have a Pleasant Flight ……………………………………. 51

Scientific Announcement ...………………………………. 53

Score and First Kiss (Yes, in that order) ………....…… 57, 58

Intermission ……………………………………………………….. 65

Continuum ………………………………………………………… 65

Break Time and Cryptaxidgience …………..…………. 69, 70

Chapter IV (Intra-Vacuous) ……………………………………..… 73

The Ins and Outs of Communication .................................... 73

Apologies Not Necessary  .................................................... 77

AI: AS: The Phantom Cub Scout …...…………….……….. 79

The Story I Don’t Tell .......................................................... 81

Let’s Go to the Cemetery! ………………………………… 81

Household Hints …………………………………………... 85

A Solstice Celebration Entwined ………………………….. 88

Giving at the Office (or Where am I now?) ……………….. 91

Family Branchings, a Grandfather’s Tale …………………. 93

After the Party Party (or Just Where Have I Been?) ………. 96

Summer Job Farm Adventures ............................................. 98

Go Fish …………………………………………………… 103

AP: SD ……………………………………………………………. 107

Time to Relax …………………………………………….. 108

The Very Next Chapter …………………………………………... 111

This Page Three

Prognosticating Reminiscent Sand Piles ...…………….….… 112

Inspiration Calls …………………………………….…..…… 115

(I Forgot … um… ) ………………………………….…..…... 117

Drink This Book and Like It ...………………………...…….. 119

Sip on This, Two………………………………………..……. 120

Prognostication (Part Duh), “It’s Obvious.” ……..…..……… 121

In Control and Lost for the Plucking …..……………..……… 123

Community Services Announcement ………………..……… 128

A Stoic Pause Orchestrates the Usual ..................................... 130

Amazing Facts …………………………………….………… 133

Lunch Time, (try and) Take a Seat ………………….………. 134

In Cattus Requiem ………………………………….……….. 135

(Further) Into the Fog ………………………………………….……. 137

What I Haven’t Written Yet …………………………….…... 137

(While Waiting) Time to Think About the Passing Time:

Encrypted Dream  ......................................................... 137

Interred Mission to Post Mission …………………..….. 141 - 142

Change the Subject (Please!) ……………………….……….. 145

A Study in Situational Ethics and Karma ………….…….….. 146

Are You Done? …………………………………….………... 150

The Reluctant Snowflake …………………………………… 154

The Pause that Refreshes …………………………………… 156

Waasa Matter? Choke on This Paragraph .................………. 158

A.E.: I.O.U. (and sometimes ‘Why?’)…………..................... 164

This Page Four

Willow and Grayswandir ........................................................ 169

If You Do It, Mean It! ............................................................  171

How God Saved the Little Boy ……………………………... 172

Scorez-vous? ........................................................................... 177

Nope ........................................................................................ 180

This Ain’t Ravinia .................................................................. 181

Do it (to) Yourself Chapter: Fill Your Own Space …………………. 185

Back to My Chapters (Yours is Boring) .......................….................. 186

Dosewallips Coming Down..................................................... 186

Invitation to Imagination and Actual Party Mode................... 187

Happy Returns the Day ……………………………………... 189

(The Preceding Day) Fathered Attentions for Lunch ............. 192

The Lonely Puddle ………………………………………….. 194

The Next Part (Lost In Toxic Subsidy)………………....…………… 197

The Other Next Part and Courting Dreams ……..…………... 198

Birthday (Maid) Service …………………………………….. 200

(Sponsored Inter-Mission) and (continued) ............................. 201

The Offer of a Strife Time ...................................................... 204

Trains Passing in the Night ..................................................... 206

The Philosophical Limits of Imagination ............................... 209

Knock Yourself Out (Please)................................................... 213

Close the Window, Mon Ami ................................................. 214

Politics in Chicago: Snow jobs ............................................... 216

This Page Five

Part Two – Experience Expands

The Following Chapter: Let’s Spend a Day Together ........................... 218

Think Green and Pick a Day ...................................................... 218

Smoke This ................................................................................. 222

Happy New Year Connections ................................................... 225

Where Was He When We Needed Him? ................................... 228

(Pointed Pivot On To) Dark is Where the White Out Finds It ... 228

On Call: The Situation is, well, In Hand ................................... 229

Taco Time Juggling ................................................................... 230

From Small Chunks Break Bits and Pieces ............................... 232

The 4 R’s and Sunday Morning Pounding Down ...................... 235

A Call Up Wake (or Finding The Big Thrill) ............................ 238

Moral Sport Dedication ............................................................. 239

Chapter On or A Pocketful of Mondays ................................................ 241

Adventure, Mystery and Romance (Maybe Not) ...................... 245

May Day and The Tube ......................................................246, 247

Juggling with Words...... (Every Page, but Specifically)........... 250

Page Two-Hundred-Fifty-Two ................................................. 252

A Grade School Lesson in Neanderthal Humor ....................... 255

Morphalexic Daydreams ........................................................... 257

Wet, Wild and Swinging (This is Ravinia) ...............................259

My Other Foot Steps Out (or) Two For One Camel Magic ..... 261

Letters to My Daughters .......................................................... 268

Chapter Next ........................................................................................ 270

This Page Six

Talk about a Character and Vocabulary Check .......................... 270

Festive Land Gluttony Day ........................................................ 272

Did You Hear Them Say It? ....................................................... 273

Random Page Number Winner! ................................................. 274

Written Memory Test ................................................................. 279

Perspection ............................................................................................. 284

Everybody’s Got to be Somewhere ............................................ 286

My Grandmother’s View of Life ............................................... 289

(I remain sleeping for the duration...) No Return ................290, 291

My Daughter Supplies Another Karmic Lesson ........................ 291

(Retroverbalizations) Intersmitten Blast from the Passed by Past.......... 293

Job Responsibility and My All Over Twist Request ................. 295

Memories in the Dark or Serving a Long Sentence ................... 296

Getting Organized ...................................................................... 298

Reminiscing the Toxic Heir ....................................................... 300

The Great Missing Page Caper ................................................. (???)

The Latest Word ......................................................................... 304

The Low Down .......................................................................... 306

There Really Should Be ............................................................. 309

Welcoming Prologue ................................................................. 311

A Child is Born ............................................................…. 10-18-79

Marriage and Diapers Leading to (More) Snow Jobs ............... 313

Part Three – I’m Looking Up So I Must Be Down

Part To (Otherness) and Ivory Tower Dreams ....................................... 315

This Page Seven

Quixic Tandal ................................................................................ 315

Decide What I Mean .....(every page, but confined here to:) ........ 321

Self-Indulged Food for Thought et Progress in the Job World ..... 322

Winding Down Watch ............................................................................... 324

Special Poetry Section ................................................................... 324

Pertinent Questions and Check Your Scorecard............................ 326

Cheesy Target Practice................................................................... 328

Clear Cut Scoring the Whole Caboodle .......................................  329

Minimalistic Excess and Silent Landing ....................................... 332

Vision Doomed ............................................................................. 335

“     Dimmed ............................................................................. 338

(Invisible Chapter) ....................................... (Your guess is as good as mine)

Final Chapter (SODI?) .............................................................................. 341

Psidereal Matrix and Garden Delight ........................................... 341

Captain Naptime Wins a Gain ...................................................... 344

Scoring through Noblesse Oblique ............................................... 347

Communication Shakedown ......................................................... 351

Am I Supposed to be Here? .......................................................... 353

A(nother) Hollow Weaning .......................................................... 354

I Digress and Hit the Bottle on the Head  ..................................... 356

Is it Ever Not Monday? ................................................................. 360

Torquellipsis .................................................................................. 361

My Aim Keeps Wandering and Missed Her Tame, Boring Man .. 363

Prologue and A Stray in the Life ............................................................... 366

This Page Eight

Epilogue ......................................................................................... 377

What Remains is Gone ................................................................... 378

Narrowing the Way .................................................................................... 379

My Magus Opium .......................................................................... 380

(Further) Winding Down and The Curtain Falls ............................ 382

The Final Score and I Would Say................................................... 384

Final Chapter (Encore) and Final Word...................................................... 385

Closing ....................................................................................................... 386

Son of a Beach …………………………………………………………… 388

And so, again, I am washing over your eyes, sifting the written word across the perceptions of your awareness. I offer you my other way of seeing life in a big city:

(next posting)

I hope to see you there (I'll be the one looking over my shoulder at you)

Thanks.and Cheers

There's Easy Listening Music Playing Somewhere

I have begun transcribing the next installment of Withering Flats and I hope to be able to finish it in the not too distant future. Stay tuned and keep an eye open (otherwise how can you read it?) and let me know when it arrives... I want to read what happens! I am going to continue to use this blog for longer things, and my other two (I know there is a fourth, but I’m not quite up to maintaining that many) for more spontaneous and random translocutional efforts. Readership slowly grows on the WordPress blogs and I feel good about reaching out in other methods of creative display (for isn't that an artist's aim?), stimulating a thought, relating a story, sharing a memory, inspiring confusion or just giving a smile. I enjoy other’s enjoyment and so live the artist’s dream.


I have a couple Zlodt Bardo stories in mind, so that will be in the science fictioned future herewith transcribings as well.

And smiles back to you...
...do you hear that?
...sounds like....

                                         Adrift on a Sea of Stone

Ivory Tower Dreams

Drive this disjointed day on. Redeem your coupons for more, take a number, stand in line: clamp down on my ivory tower dreams, they are getting too real to discern from what’s actually going on, the attraction of the fabricated fantasy looking more substantial, enticing and desirable than the factual alternatives. A golden door appears at the base of the tower, firm and stately with an aura of great power emanating from it, causing my heart to long to pass through its presence and realize the fulfillment of desires and needs that lies beyond. I see people lined and waiting to be able to enter, impatient and edgy, yet steadfast in their order and purpose, each knowing that the answers to their particulars are available within. Time takes a giant leap forward into the next moment, only to trip, stumble and staccato off to a steady infinity of others. Some might say it was worth the wait, others won’t notice (thus holding up the line for the rest of us). However, I’m interrupted among all this as other intricate stairways pull my wander mind to climb to a new view, only to have a lateral branching lead my steps in a variant direction, only to have a lateral branching lead my steps in a contrasting direction, only to have a lateral branching lead my steps in a different direction, only to have a lateral branching lead my steps in another direction, when I suddenly look back, wonder just where I am and see a lateral branching I hadn’t noticed before, so I think how interesting that way looks and I wander still further on ….um, what was I talking about? I am tumbled in my goals like a leaf in the wind, hurry scurry flurrying around and around and never catching a solid moment of peace, a stable foundation of belief and confidence, a basis to find cohesive function and balance in my creative pursuits, my inspired efforts, my labored offerings, my dreams come true. Like a bird bobbing around a bush looking for insects, a squirrel scritching upon the circumference of a tree trunk keeping away from potential predators or a bear climbing over a succession of mountains just to see what he could see, the situation is redundant in the fact that I look at each stepped moment of life and see an altered, lateral view of reality’s scope, my time catching stride and tangling in the infinite stairways thus revealed each and every step along the way…. Becoming excited, I run quickly to follow (lead) up on this new path only to lose my footing and fall bum dee bum bump in ominous music tuned to my sudden descent back down. I stop and ease to a sitting position, look around as I feel the bruising sure to be seen upon the morrow, scratch my head, stand back up, turn and find myself facing a long narrow hallway that leads into the dim of distance. Looking left and right at the endless stairs, I give a mental shrug and head on down the open hall. After a few dozen steps, a closed door marks its place on the left as I pass, and then another on the right, and then one on the left and another on the right as they become the norm, my steps taking me past them one after another in monotonous continuation. I finally tire of this and step to the next door on the left, grasp its handle, push it open and look inside: like an answer to subconscious prayers, it’s a bathroom. How convenient. I step in, close the door, unbuckle my belt and … (censored)… and buckle my belt, step to the sink and wash my hands, check my reflection in the mirror as I use a paper towel, throw the towel in the trash and open the door again to come face first with an angry looking man who says, “About time!” pushes past me and slams the door shut, cutting off his exclamation of, “Cripes! It stinks in…” leaving me standing facing the outside of the door. I notice that it is gold and that the hallway is gone and I am on the upper landing of a stairway, with a long line of people all frowning at me and muttering to themselves about time and consideration of the needs of others. I sheepishly step my way down on one side of the stairs, saying, “Sorry … sorry…” to the frowning people I pass, trying to be as quick and unobtrusive as I can. Reaching the bottom of the stairs, I look back to once more see the ivory tower of my dreams, but it has somehow lost the aura of magic and wonder that it had held earlier. I purse my lips, put my hands into my pockets, shrug my shoulders around my hunched stance, shake my head in slow wonder as to what just happened, then turn and wander away into the next paragraph.

(Again) From my book Endless Shifting Sand... it’s nice to have a quick and easy source for postings when I get home too late to be able to be very creative.

Posted by Michael Steven Platt 4-18-09

Digging Deep and Three Thoughts

Dianne and I spent a taxing couple of hours looking through old notebooks of mine for stories that have never been put into the computer, and, by the time we had found a few, there is not enough time to transcribe, edit and present one in a suitable format. Dianne did a delightful job typing up a transcription of a dream I once had, but I will use this as a rough draft and offer the polished version at a later date. So for today’s entry I will make due by putting forth a few Thoughts of the Moment and call it a night.

Doing the best one can is the ultimate goal of any given moment.

Sometimes I feel like I’m fighting a losing uphill battle just to stay where I am.

Some people are gifted with a generous dearth of awareness.


Catch you in the greater later on!

Written by Michael Steven Platt 4-15-09

Keep Dreaming, Valiant Warrior

Friday, from the couch as I ease into dream: … hazy start drifts into newscasts of aliens landing to some resistance… those people of Earth still fighting being defeated and crushed, bombs devastating cities… the mothership in orbit as we watch TV to get some idea of what is happening… the east coast of the USA bearing the brunt of this assault, which is headed this way. Someone says we should shoot missiles to blast the big ship out of the sky but the newsman on the tube immediately says that no missiles are available, the government will not further antagonize these creatures, they will not fire.

"The private people have a missile… they're going to use it!" sounds out from the general crowd. Sure enough, the view pans to a steaming rocket on the launch pad… the governmental representative says, "No!" but too late... up into the sky it flares, armed and ready, Mankind's last hope... the TV picks up the view as it arcs upward and then levels out over the land, heading east, the camera on board showing towns and cities streaking by below.

"This is a "live" picture", I comment, somehow becoming the moderator for those watching on the tube, "it's actually happening as we watch.” And the view from the spaceship missle is sharp and clear, from about 500 feet to a hundred miles up at the same time, compressed for the benefit of the viewers. The landscape stretches out below, with New York against the oncoming horizon of evening, a look back showing Chicago outlined against the setting sun, and down below, as the ship passes over, the fiery hole of a bombed out city flickerflaming angrily in the offsetting dim of dusk.

I look up from my perch, where I have somehow become situated in the very nose of the speeding craft (the camera view is now from my helmet), shoulders, arms and head sticking out like a hood ornament, control box on the side of the ship in front of me, my body up to my chest enclosed within the ship. The steering has become visual/manual, and I note, from some innerglimpse of outerview, that I should have my goggles on. The ship hurtles over the land at varying altitudes, but seems to be best if flying low and (hopefully) out of detection range. The city looms near and I start to weave in and out, around the bridges, buildings and other obstacles that present themselves in my path. The mother ship is now settled in New York's harbor, safe, they believe, and secure. My way to it more and more confused, following through tunnels and byways that don't make much sense, but must be navigated all the same.

The Lincoln Tunnel is right in front of me… should I go down and under, flying over the backed up automobile traffic, or should I follow the stairs up to use the George Washington bridge? I opt for the bridge and wind my way up the staircase, camouflaged as another person in the crowd, minus my ship in a smooth, dreamlike (as real as that could seem here) transition, when suddenly, right in front of me, at the top of the stairs, the stewardess stops the line to let the surface of the bridge buckle up for a moment, then back straight and flat again. (Compensating for the crowds? Stretching?) I am let through (whew!) to follow some East Indian women up into the (suddenly materializing) waiting airplane's door, way up above the crowds still milling about on the bridge, onto a ramp that drops to the wing, with no walls on that side to hamper the view. I see the downtown area of the city in the distance as the bridge continues on over the river, but don’t have time for more than this quick glance.

The women jump down to the wing and (for some obscure reason) begin to undress, their saris unwrapped and bare skin starting to show. I avert my eyes, remembering that the folks at home are still watching through my TV camera eyes, turn and step over to and through a door that opens to the grassy side yard of a school. My two daughters suddenly tagging along beside me, sad that I must go, knowing that I'm going for good. I bend and hug them, kissing them goodbye, telling them I love them and they should think of me, saying that I love Mommy and everything will be okay. I shed them, climb back into my conveniently waiting spaceship (we had become separated somehow at the tunnel-bridge choice…it must have gone ahead through the tunnel) climb up and strap in quickly, for the authorities are coming. A man suddenly grabs onto the side of the ship, clawing at my arms to try to stop me as I flip the switches and blast off. He is torn away and I'm flying off on my rocketing mission once again.

My heart cries out for my girls as I rise above the harbor, spy the submarine like craft of the alien’s mothership, thrust the throttle full and head (literally) straight for them. I wonder if there is some kind of force shield that might protect them from the bombs loaded in my ship, but realize it is too late to worry about anything like that. I zoom slant in at an accelerating killer dive, faster and faster, closer, closer tense and POW crashcrush helmet head body ship exploding into the side of that evil vessel without so much as even scratching it…

My ghost floats over to where my wife has been watching all this on TV, and I ask her if I destroyed the enemy's space craft. "No"… was her distracted reply (she was still engrossed in the replays of the last action from my helmetcam). So I shook my head in resigned frustration and faded into oblivion...

Well, it was a good try anyway…..

I had another, much more mundane and typical dream before that one, but I can’t recall more than a particular scene. I remember that there was this short, stocky, scowling dwarf dressed in bright pantaloons and a gaudily decorated vest. He had a large hammer with a hugely oversized head on it as big as his body, which he was holding in threatening manner in both hands by the long, thick pole of its handle. He had just walked away from us, gone over and bonked the giant rabbit into unconsciousness when it had come outside of the nearby cave for a drink, letting it lie at his feet as he looked around for anything else to hit. He left the monstrous, over-muscled, gnarly, snarling ogre and its companion (also strange within my peripheral view, yet not seen enough for a valid description) character to guard me and my hapless companions as we were busy with shovels and picks filling the large, roundish pit in the ground with garden salad.

So how was your sleep?

Written by Michael Steven Platt 4-11-09