Ice Cream Series #3, Pastel, by John Cummings
keeping score
The score 983 to 735
he’s quite a bit ahead
(as you can see)
46 points for washing my car
52 for buying me flowers
minus 10 because slightly wilted
I lost 66 points when I called him fuck face
after he watched four hours of women’s
beach volleyball, focused on barely-there bikinis
and 358 when I dropped our tax return in the toilet
but wait, just in
579 points for fixing his phlegmatic computer
saving us a small fortune
I gloat and glee around the room
eternally grateful to You Tube
the god of Fixing All Things
I love this game
but the score suddenly shifts
I lose 937 points for flouncing & swaggering
I collapse on the sofa & swig straight gin
(lose 88 more points)
who cares
stupid ledger
stupid game
______________
Claire Scott
Review by Massimo Fantuzzi
If only. Measurable actions to which measurable repercussions are ascribed. The beautiful specificities of the Dark Ages’ minds, which were everything but dark. From his exile on charges of corruption by the Republic of Florence (where he worked as a civil servant and high official), a truly vexed Dante tried to compile a similar score on a slightly bigger scale, and must have come to the same conclusion: stupid ledger, stupid game. The justice of men trying to play God, or what they imagine a god should magistrate like if he were indeed a man – if only. What do we know today when it comes to points? After reviewing the data, my doctor was very happy to tell me that I fall in the top 3% of the population when it comes to the chances of not developing heart disease in the next ten years, or something like that. Stupid game.