Narrative Poem

Driver's Test

By Ed DiMartino


With unsteady fingers, and liquid legs
I try to stand with unquestioned poise
Making amends with gods I offend
And praying aloud, overtop of street noise

Attempting to clench, with staggering fingers
A set of mangled and rusted keys
I place a hand, to charming effect
On my father's '87 mercedes

The tension-induced anxiety
That wrenches my shoulderblades aside
Is cut for me, when turned to see
The authority with her heavy stride

"Lets begin," she says with a grin
"To assess your capabilities
Now don't be shy, and step on in:
-sit-
-lock-
-check-
-check-
-check-
"Check," she says, as I show her the keys

"Im kind of nervous," whimpered from my mouth
"That's quite normal," she reassured
"We're simply driving two miles south,
And back," but my shakes are still uncured.

Straight to my heart, the engine start
Sends, with haste, a thousand volts
And resonates for a year or two
It feels, as both my arms give jolts

With vice grip and cement arms' force
The steering wheel gives out a creak
And as we lurch, premature remorse
Flashes 'DANGER!', I still pray not to seek

But as time passes, my arms grow numb
And as concern plays an ironic game
For late night worrying seems rather dumb
When lack of sleep is an accident's blame

Heavy eyelids are wrenched to my brow
With a sour look upon my heavy face
But attempts of concealment seem futile now
As my visions mesh without a trace

"Are you alright," speaks a strong lullaby
That swirls my concious up and down
And before I have chance to even reply
My future - an omen - is fatefully bound

Out of nowhere it seems to approach
A stepping-stone mountain before the wheels
A look of terror on my unfortunate coach
Is all I remember between the squeals

The squeals of tires over the curb
The squeals of her wreched, piercing voice
The squealing swerve, and those that observe
But not the squealing animal noise

The creature that I skillfully avoided
Must have wrought from within the vain,
Broken, messy, demented nature
Of chaos from my fatigued brain

For in a glimpse, I see no fur
Or tail, or feet, or even snout
But from a crash and shocking blur
Expels a pouring hydrant-spout

Whipped into a mangled form
And from my chest gives out a heave
As it's pounded by the safety airbag
Which I always thought would be more comfy

But through this traumatic experience
I could never have felt more shame
Than to look across the clipboard, hence
To find a large red 'X' beside my name

Sonnet

Mulberry
-By Ed DiMartino


Paved, ordinary, and simple it stands

Day after day trampled by mellow folk

Walls crowded, painfuly coarse by the hands

Drenched shadows pass - not a word to be spoke'

Still - not a sudden move falls out of place

Clenching my old sachel deep in my side

Eyes rolled up - desparate - to dark, clouded space

Searching for secrets that memories hide

Reaching for jugglers and vast circus rings

Graceful giraffes and exotic bird song

Grasping at zings and orchestral pings

Things that before me are sure to belong

But time - a magician - plays the vanishing game

For Mulberry no longer remains the same

Journal Entry #5

Questions are always raised about childcare and customary youth behaviour. "Do we overprotect our children," or, "When should we let go?". Many people believe that every aspect of the world is dangerous. This sort of ideal often leads to dangerously protective behaviour, and does not properly prepare children for the real world by the time that they start living on their own. I do not aggree with this type of parenting. Instead, I believe that, based on the average North American youth, children are often overprotected and should be given a larger degree of exposure to the real world as we know it.

At a young age, an infant is like a blank sheet of paper. It can have many amazing things written on it over the course of it's life. It can move through life clean, dirty, or with something branded into it. Unlike paper, however, it becomes stronger with age. Infants must grow an immune system while they are young, and the only way to grow a proper immune system is to be exposed to that which you can become immune. Things like certain flu viruses and common germs are important to ingest while young, because if you end up ingesting these things when older, the impact will be much more severe. That is why it is important to strengthen that piece of paper to it's fullest potential, lest something come by and tear it in half (not to be graphic- it's just paper).

Sheltering a child can have social repercussions as well as health effects. Children that have been sheltered become shy, preventing the child from seeking friendship. This may lead to a lonely lifestyle. Those that do not become shy, often seek other sheltered youth to connect with. This further limits the number of people with whom they may develop friendships. An effect like this does not always last an entire lifetime and often changes around the last few years of highschool, but it degrades the quality of life for a child during the prime of their youth.

The world needs creativity. In a sheltered lifestyle, boundaries become it's enemy. As an actor, I am strongly influenced to believe that children cannot be sufficated by paranoid guardians waiting for the next big epidemic scare. The boundaries placed on radical youth can be important, but their restriction on creativity leads to lack of culture, artistry, and - most importantly - imagination. The death of imagination charges the downfall of humanity, and the prime of youth is it's salvation (not to sound preachy).

This ideal of parental protection has only developed over the last two hundred years. Before this, there was not excessive need to protect a child from the horrible things that occur in the world. This is one reason why child protection is so prominent in our society, as well as why it may be taken to unreasonable levels. Every parent is unique as an individual and every child needs to be treated differently, but the restriction that is often presented by modern parents on the freedom of youth is no less than a crime.

Journal Entry #4

For thousands of years, tools have been a significant part of human culture, development and survival. Every day tools are used for eating, carrying, walking, and even seeing. People have become so dependent on them that they almost forget about their existence. One very necessary, very useful tool - as well as my favourite tool - that sometimes slips our of people's minds is found everywhere, but very rarely presented. That tool is the alarm.

People find beauty in their lives, both conciously and unconciously. All day, they stare at flowers, trees, and even buildings, able to comprehend the wonderous, abstract benefits that it supplies. These asthetic views, however, are useless. When laying in bed, dreaming of fantastic and barely imaginable shapes and concepts, people forget that these things are products of Satan. In order to free them from this manipulative, evil state of mind, the alarm serves it's purpose. Ridding the world of evil creativity and filling it with benevolent, stale order, Earth becomes a better place for everyone - thanks to the morning alarm.

Primaly, the alarm has always existed. It is an instinct that everyone posesses. In order to survive, creatures must be aware of their surroundings. They naturally keep a certain sense of their atmosphere that elevates or decipates depending on their state of mind. Mamals will not rest until they are completely satasfied with the safety of their environment, and therefore have keen senses until that point. Once safe, unfamiliar or warding noises, sights or feelings trigger a certain jolt of awareness. Similar to adrenaline, this jolt is a natural alarm that can be the difference between a safe escape or an entree. This type of alarm has further use than survival in a modern world.

Since ancient times, people have believed in different religions involving spirits and demons. Certain people have believed in demonic posession. In order to extract demons from humans, these people often performed rituals that resulted in pain or even death. This made others worry constantly if they would qualify as one of the "posessed" to their community, and through this state of mind, people became worried of others. They would often find signs that may isolate a person as a target; short tempers, odd appearances, strange habbits, and in some cases sneezing or hiccuping was a sign of demonic posession. This is where the natural alarm serves it's purpose, once again. Scaring someone has become a popular way to relieve someone of hiccups. The act of scaring someone triggers the 'adrenaline rush' body shock, that through some divine miracle, can cure someone of hiccups. Thanks to this natural alarm, these people could rest a little bit easier knowing that the natural alarm is on God's side.

As a student, I am directly affected by the most popular of artificial alarms - the fire alarm. When attending class, it is comforting to know that there is a functioning fire alarm. Should there be a fire, then with the help of a fire escape plan, I know that I will have options of escape. Besides escape, this kind of fire alarm also provides an excellent trap used by serial killers. Activating a fire alarm will almost guarantee that every student will exit the building in an orderly fashion. This provides excellent, unsuspecting, moving targets for any .22 caliber or higher rifle-action weapon. Because of this, the alarm not only serves as an excellent safety feature, but a good way for angry hunters to "get their rocks off".

The alarm certainly is an underground savior in past and modern times. It is sometimes forgotten as one of the most useful and effective tools of the world. From saving lives to ridding evil, the alarm always serves it's purpose - assuming that it is set correctly.

Journal Entry #3

As North Americans, many of us find privelage in several aspects of everyday life. From quality of life to education, we find ourselves surrounded in opportunity. Through this mindset we become used to hand-out education, and when the time comes to reach out for it, we either cannot be bothered, or do not posess the ambition to seek it. This is usually the source of citizens taking education for granted, and overall leads to the decline of our civilization.

It is common for parents, relatives and close friends to look after people at a young age. Each family has it's own limitations and ideals, but the concept stays similar. They are constantly attended to and barricaded from a great deal of the world. These traits pass as they get older, but sometimes do not leave quick or slow enough to have a proper impact. Several parents that let their children have too much freedom too early make them corrupt and most likely exposed to the parts of life that are more difficult to handle alone. On the contrary, parents that keep barriers in their children's lives for to long keep them sheltered and spoiled - unable to fend or think properly for themselves. Most often this type of behaviour is caused from fear.

Claims are constantly made of government conspiracies against the population - targeted news, imbeslement - and with the way others act around us, it is understandable that we would become afraid. The more we fear, the more sheltered we become; leading to selfish squandering of effort towards our own needs. In this circumstance, we condition eachother to live selfishly and sometimes lose track of important values. The values that we lose would be values that helped our prioritization of things like health, significant others and education. We naturally lose track of these things when things seem bleak, but in other places, people condition each other to live well when exposed to these situations.

Living conditions in certain underdeveloped countries, such as Somalia or South Africa, are very poor. Many people starve to death every day and others barely manage to live with the limited resources that are available. With civil war, famine and in some places disease, education becomes a lower priority than survival. Because civilians know this, they will fight for what they need and live off of whatever they can. In turn, however, education proves as an escape from this lifestyle, and becomes an important goal.

Since education is not often available to everyone, people need to fight for their chance to learn. This also raises the expense of schooling which further limits who is able to attend. In some places, entire communities will pool money in order to afford to send one citizen to recieve an education. As unfortunate as it may be, this greatly displays how much more these citizens value their education than we do.

Children's Story: Very Little Nicky

Not too long ago, in a place deep, deep underground called 'The Land of Darkness,' there was a man named Satana.

Satana was a nice man with a mean job. Satana's job was to do bad things to bad people after they die. Everyone was afraid of Satana, and they called him 'The Prince of Darkness' But Satana never died, so he became very tired of his work. Satana did not mind his job, because he could be by his three young children.

Satana's three young boys were named Adrian, Cassius, and Nicky. Adrian was devious, always making plans to be bad to other people. Cassius was cruel, always being mean to everyone. Adrian and Cassius were good freinds- always causing mischief and tricking people. But one of the boys was not like the other two.

Nicky was a good boy that did not cause mischief or trick or be mean to people. He was nice to people when they died. Nicky was also Satana's favourite son.

One day, Satana came back home from work to talk to his sons. "Boys, I have been doing my job for ten thousand years. I am tired, and I want one of you to be the next Prince of Darkness," said Satana.

"I want to be the next Prince of Darkness," said Adrian, the devious one, "I will trick everyone into cleaning my room for me!"

"No, I want to be the Prince of Darkness," said Cassius, the cruel one, " I will make them eat all of my vegetables, every day!"

"Actually, I don't want to be the Prince of Darkness, father," said Nicky, the nice one.

"Why not?" said Satana.

"Well... The Prince of Darkness has to be mean to everyone," said Nicky, "and I don't want to be mean. I want to be nice!"

"But Nicky," said Satana, "When bad people die, they need to be punished! Without somebody punishing bad people, more and more people will start doing bad things!"

"But there are already so many bad people that come to The Land of Darkness after they die," said Nicky, "I do not think that being bad to them is going to help anyone. I think that if we are nice to them, then they will start being nice too."

"Nicky," Satana said, " I was going to pick you to be the next Prince of Darkness. But since you only want to be nice to people, I suppose that I will have to keep working for the next ten thousand years."

This made Adrian and Cassius mad. Then, Adrian came up with a sneaky plan. He thought that if he and Cassius could go up to Earth, they could both be Princes of Darkness there.

That night, just after midnight, they carefully crept out of The Land of Darkness, up the big staircase, and into Earth. Everyone was surprised the next morning.

"Oh no," said Satana, "if Cassius and Adrian are not here in our land, then I will melt into a puddle by midnight! What are we going to do?"

Thinking quickly, Nicky said, "I'll go and look for them, father. If I am nice to them, they will surely come back."

Satana thought about this for a second, and then he said, "If you can bring them back before midnight, then even if you are nice to people, I will definitely let you be the Prince of Darkness."

With a big smile on his face, Nicky ran out of The Land of Darkness, up the big staircase, and into Earth. But Earth was big, and cold compared to his home. Nicky was frightened, but he knew that he could find Adrian and Cassius.

As he was walking down the street, Nicky saw a bunnyrabbit. "Did you see two mean little boys, bunnyrabbit?" said Nicky. But the rabbit did not answer, since rabbits do not talk. Instead, it just hopped, hopped away into the forest.

Then he saw a streetlight that was blinking bright green. Nicky had never seen a streetlight before and said, "Excuse me, mister, did you see two mean little boys around here?" The streetlight simply turned yellow, then red, and did not answer, since streetlights do not talk.

Nicky was getting angry, and started running fast down the street. He saw a man dressed in a big, red coat and wearing a white beard. The man was ringing a bell, and standing next to a sign that said "Christmas Charity".

"Excuse me, mister," said Nicky, "do you talk?"

The man in the big red coat looked at Nicky and became frightened. "Oh, no," the man said, "it is another child of darkness! Stay away!"

"Do you know my father?" Said Nicky, "Then did you see my brothers, Adrian and Cassius?"

"I saw two mean little boys," said the man, "and they came and took my money out of this bucket! They ran down the street, that way!" he said as he pointed, "Now please, stay away!"

"Gee, I'm sorry they took your money, mister," Nicky said, "but thank you for telling me where Adrian and Cassius went." Because Nicky is so nice, he put some money in the bucket. The man was shocked, and did not know what to say, but he was very happy.

Nicky kept running and running down the street, until he was too tired to run anymore. That is when he saw Adrian and Cassius trying to sneak over a garden fence.

"What are you doing?" Said Nicky, "That is someone else's garden! It is not nice to take from other people."

"We are hungry," said Cassius, "and we do not know where to eat."

"Yes," said Adrian, "and we can steal some fruit from this garden."

Nicky did not like that they were stealing from someone else's garden, and he did not know what to do. It was getting late, and he was afraid that his father would turn into a puddle. But then he remembered all of the tricks that Adrian and Cassius played on him. He thought that this would be the perfect time to trick them.
"You know," said Nicky, "our father said that he would make us a big feast when I found you."

"Boy that does sound good," said Cassius.

"Yes, I am very hungry," said Adrian, "Lets go back."

The three boys walked all the way back out of Earth, down the big staircase, and into The Land of Darkness. There they saw Satana, but it was only his head. It was sitting in a big bucket of water.

"Boys," said Satana in a very angry way, "You should not have left! I almost turned into a puddle."

"We are sorry that we left, father," said the two boys.

Then Satana grew back into his body, and said, "Now that you are back, you are both going to be locked in your rooms without dinner!"

"But I thought you were going to make a big feast," said Cassius.

"You tricked us, Nicky," said Adrian.

Nicky smiled as Adrian and Cassius ran back to their rooms. Then he gave his father a big hug.

"You did a great job, Nicky," said Satana, "and I am sure that you will do even better as the new Prince of Darkness!"

Then Nicky made an even bigger smile, and said, "As long as I can be nice to people, I know that I will."

Radio Play: A Real Jerk

CAST

Val - a cocky sounding young boy of 12.

Marty - a young, experienced sounding man of approximately 25 with a slight brooklyn-style accent.

Keeper - older, sloppy sounding man of approximately 50

Officer Finnes- older, experienced sounding authoritatively voiced police officer of approximately 40

---SCENE---

-(Faint background noises of the streets play in the background for a few seconds. As they fade, some rustling is heard - perhaps quick footsteps, crunching of paper)

Val: (whispering) Damn it! There's absolutely nothing in this pile.

Marty: Well, then quit playin' around and look over there. I think I seen a foil wrapper in that heap there... and watch your language, kid.

Val: I told you to quit callin' me 'kid'. My name's Val! I don't forget your name 'Martin'.

Marty: That's Marty. And It's Uncle Marty to you 'kid'!

Val: Yeah, yeah... Great job gettin' us kicked outa the club tonight - you couldn't have just gave him the stupid tip? I mean, come on, it's just fifteen cents! Even I could cough up that much!

Marty: Yeah- well then wadd'ya hold off for? You ate just the same as I did!

Val: (gradually getting a bit louder) Barely! I got two bites into my sandwich before Tommy recognized us. If you hadn't caused such a stupid fuss over that damn tip, we wouldn't be searching around this god-forsaken dump for burger scraps!

Marty: (almost shouthing) I said watch your mouth!

-(more rustling is heard - more footsteps)

Marty: Shh!- (whispering again) over there.

Keeper: (distant shouting) 'Ello? Who's out there?...

-(more footsteps are heard, approaching)

Keeper: (shouting) 'Ello?... Damn, cats.

-(footsteps heard moving further away, then a distant door slam)

Val: (still whispering) Geeze! You almost got us caught again! That'd be the third time this week.

Marty: So what? We was just buggin' people we knew. And that was just this week. So far I've been put away twice, and I don't plan on goin away again. The keeper here's a good friend of your dad's-

Val: (cutting him off) -don't talk about him.

Marty: ...Look, kid, he's your father just as much as my brother. Just 'cause he's locked up doesn't change that alright? Besides, Sammy was still good to you, wasn't he?

Val: (a bit louder) He was a jerk. A stupid jerk!

Marty: Shh!- He was not a jerk. He did what he had to do, and he's a good man for it. Now go look in that pile over there and find somethin'. I'm starvin' over here.

-(some more shifting and rustling is heard)

Val: Hey! Hey Marty, come over here!

Marty: Anything good?

Val: You kiddin'? It's like someone threw out a Christmas dinner over here! There's at least two cans of beans, half a sandwich,- what is that, a porkchop? We got porkchops!

Marty: Hehe, good job, kid- I mean Val.

Val: Lets get outta here- you got somethin' to wrap this up?

Marty: Yeah, here's a cloth.

Val: (over some rustling noises) Come on, hurry up!

Marty: I'm goin'... (rustling noises stop) Ok, let's get the hell outa' here.

Val: 'Watch you're language, Marty'.

Marty: Yeah, shut up, kid.

-(After a beat, a crash of dropped glass or metal is heard)

Marty: Val!

Val: Sorry.

-(A distant gunshot noise is heard)

Keeper: (distant shouting) Who's there?

Val: (Shouting) Shit!

Marty: Break for it!

-(Rapid footsteps are heard)

Keeper: Marty? That better not be you again! I swear I'll... I'm calling the cops.

-(The sound of footsteps fade out as street sounds pick up. After a few seconds, the street sounds fade back into footsteps accompanied by light wind sounds)

Val: (out of breath as the footsteps stop) They're... they're comin' for us Marty... Damn it!

Marty: Relax... we're safe here. Cops never check around the docks at this time of night... Not unless... not unless there's a bust, and I didn't see no-one.

Val: Ok... (catching breath) I think you dropped a can.

Marty: What?

Val: Beans. I think you dropped a can of beans.

Marty: (after shuffling) ...Aw, geeze. When?

Val: When we passed, uh... what's that store with the crappy sausage rolls?

Marty: That's that Sphinton place on Elmore. That ain't too far.

Val: Can we go back and get it?

Marty: No, we can't go back and get it, you Idiot. The cops ain't stupid, they'll patrol someone anywhere between here and the dump- it's procedure.

Val: Of course we can't go back and get it now. I didn't say to go back and get it now- I meant we wait an hour or two, then go back and get it.

Marty: ...Fine. We'll go back and get it. First we gotta wait, though... We just gotta wait.

-(The wind sounds pick up for a moment, then fade back into the street noises)

Marty: (under his breath) Well, where is it?

Val: I think we dropped it when we ran through this alley. Right around... There!

Marty: Great- now lets get outta-

Finnes: (Cutting him off) You can stop right there, Marty.

Marty: Val, get outta here.

Val: No, I'm not leavin' without you.

Marty: What are you, stupid? Get outta here damn it!

Finnes: Relax, Marty. I'm just here for you. Geeze, you gotta do somethin' stupid on my shift, don't you? Kid, beat it.

Val: No! I'm not leavin' without Marty.

Finnes: Well you're not comin' with us kid.

Marty: Come on, Val, get out of here.

Val: No! You're just like Sammy! He told me I was just a stupid kid, and told me to go away! Now he's in prison! I'm not just a stupid kid, damn it. (starting to cry) God damn it, You're not gonna just leave me like this!

Marty: ...Finnes, give me a minute with him.

Finnes: Look, It's the end of my shift, and my wife's probably worried sick about-

Marty: (cutting him off) I'm talkin' about a minute, Finnes.

Finnes: Fine. You got one minute. And that's Officer Finnes, Marty.

Marty: Yeah, yeah... Val, listen to me. Third time losers don't just pop out in a week or two, I'm goin away for a while. I've got five bucks in my pocket - that's food for a week. Give it to aunt Donna, and tell her what happened - she's gonna take care of you from now on.

Val: (Choked through tears) This is bullshit!

Marty: Watch your mouth. And don't try to come see me anytime soon - I've had enough trouble outta you. Just do your schoolwork, alright?

Val: I... (crying less now) fine Marty.

Marty: Alright, then get the hell outta here. Lets go, 'Officer'.

Finnes: It's a shame, Marty.

Marty: What do I care 'bout it? He's just a stupid kid.

Val: You're a jerk, Marty. A real jerk, you know that?

-(Rapid footsteps are heard fading away)

Marty: Yeah, yeah. I'm a real jerk.

-(Footsteps heard, fading into street noises, fading into nothing)
(OR, Footsteps heard, fading into music, fading into nothing)

END OF SCENE