over_and_over raze the house is fully automated. its voice was designed to be soothing. it sounds sinister to me. at least that makes it honest. i'm led past a partition and punished for some imagined slight. a razor blade scrapes the knuckles of my dominant hand. it stings less than it should and leaks more than i'd like it to. the house gives me a band_aid to blanket the bleeding. a woman shows up. no one i know. it's clear she means to kill me. i wrestle her shotgun away from her. she braces herself for what's coming. i don't want to shoot her. i want to shoot this house. my younger brother finds its heart hidden in the last place i would think to look. the garage door. henry, you little genius. i give it two good blasts. then we make a run for it. now that it's dying, the house gets a body to stand inside itself. a canadian comedian of our mutual acquaintance wades into a room that's flooded and shakes his bones to the beat laid down by a band in a box. he sings the word "stranded" over and over until he's screaming at the top of his range. no urgency in it. he lacks the necessary programming to process what's happening to him. maybe it's better that way. 240927 what's it to you? who go blather from