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: this is a story

believe: this is a story

believe:this is a storythe glass passenger written by andrew mcmahon//archy and mehitbel written by don marquis//

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why (you’ve gotta swim) not commit suicide.

my naked soul.

swim prelude.

he cried into his beer.

just keep your head above (swim).

i need light in the dark (the resolution).

assisting at a suicide.

saved.

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well boss here i am a cockroach still boss i have often been disgusted with life but now i am even more disgusted with death and transmigration i would rather not inhabit any body at all than inhabit a cockroachs body but it seems i cant escape it that is my destiny my doom my punishment when you struck me that terrific blow a few days ago and i died there at your feet my first sensation was one of glad relief what body will the should of archy transmigrate into now i asked myself will i go higher in the scale of life and inhabit the body of a butterfly or a dog or a

my naked soul

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how hard it is for a cockroach to commit suicide unlessyou have been one and tried it of course icould let mehitabel the cat damage me and die that way but all my finer sensibilitiesrevolt at the idea i jumped outthe fourth story window and a wind caught me and blew me into the eighth store itried to hang myself with a thread and i am so light ijust swung back and forth and didn’t even choke myself shootingis out of the question and poisonis not withinmy reach i might drown myself in the ink well but if you ever got a mouthful of it youwould know it was a thing no refined person could goon with boss i am going toend it all before long and iwant to go easy have you any suggestion yoursfor transmigration

why (you’ve gotta swim,)* not commit suicide

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spinning | jack’s mannequin

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swim | jack’s mannequin

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s*

ibelieve.

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just keep your head above. 14believe.

he cried into his beer cont.

lighti need light in the dark

and have much time to work and thinkand put the job acrossoh boss you ask too much of mei do the best i can but who can lush continually and be a working manyou can t expect a man to booze from morning until night and feel quite nimble in his shoes and add his figures right oh boss you ask too much of us we have no flair for toilyou can t expect a man to souse and do work for your business house so do not be unjust unto their bosses than tear the hair and beat the head and blame luckfor their losses

the currents will drag us away from our love...

just keep your head above.

the currents will drag us away from our love...

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he cried into his beer cont.

well boss i had agreat example of the corruptinginfluence of the greatcity brought to my notice recently adrunken hornet blew in herethe other day and sat down in thecorner and dozed and buzzed not a real sleep you know one of those wakeful liquor trances with the fuzzy talk oozing out of it to hearthis guy mumble in his dreams he was rightwicked my name he says is crusty billi never been licked and i never will andthen he would go half way asleepagain nobody around here wanted tofight him and after a while he got sober enough to know how drunk he hadbeen and began to cry over it and getsentimental about himself mind is a wastedlife he says but i had a goodstart red liquor ruined me he says and sobbed tell me your story i said two years ago he said i was a country hornet young and strong and handsome i lived in a rusty rainspout with myparents and brothers and sisters and all wasinnocent and merry often in that happy pastoral life would we swoop downwith joyous laughter and sting the schoolchildren on the village green but on an evilday alas i came to the city in a crate of peaches i found myself in a marketnear the water front alone and friendless in thegreat ity its ways were strange tome food seemed inaccessible i thoughtthat i might starve to death as i was bussingdown the street thinking these gloomythoughts i met another hornetjust outside a speak easy kid he saysyou look down in the mouth forget it kid i will show you how to live withoutworking how i says watch me he says justthen a drunken fly cam crawling out

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of the bar room in a leisurely way my new found friend stung dissected and consumed that flythat s the way he says smaking his lipsthis is the life that was a beer flywait i will get you a cocktail fly thisis the life i took up that life alas theflies around a bar room get so drunk drinkingwhat is spilled that they are helpless all a hornet has to do is wait calmly untilthey come staggering out and there is hisliving ready made for him at first beingyoung and innocent i ate only beer flies but the curse of drink got me the mad life began to tell upon me i got so i would not eat a fly that was not full of some strong and headyliquor the lights and life got me i wouldnot eat fruits and vegetables any more i scornedflies from a soda fountainthey seemed flat and insipid to mefinally i got so wicked that i went back to the country and got six innocentyoung hornets and brought them backto the city with me i started them in the business i debauched them andthey caught my flies for me now i am inan awful situation my six hornets from thecountry have struck and set up on their ownhook i have to catch my flies myselfand my months of idleness anddissipation have spoiled my technique i can t catch a fly now unless he is dead drunk what is to become of me alas the curseof alcoholic beverages especially with eachmeal well i said it is a sad storybill and of a sort only toocommon in this day of ours it is he says ihave the gout in my stinger so badthat i scream with pain every time i speara fly i got into a safe place on theinside of the typewriter and yelled out at himmy advice is suicide bill all the timehe had been pitying himself my sympathy had been with the flies

resolution

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00 19believe. I NEED LIGHT

IN THE DARK IN SEARCH FOR THE RESOLUTION”

“

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well boss i have just been assisting at a suicide i think the gentleman who killed himself wasquite right in doing so too i went into the kitchen of an up town hotel the otherevening for a bite to eat and afteri had dined i thought i would look the place over and ifi found a room that appealed to me i would spend the night there the room i got into was alreadyinfested by a little old bald headed fellow with scared eyes and a face likea petrified turnip who washunched up under a reading lamp reading a bible all of a sudden he gave ajump and said gawd gawd there itis again and i saw a fuff ofsmoke floating across the table in front of him it seemed to come from nowhere in particular smoke smoke cried the old man i am haunted by smoke and as he spoke another puff of smoke suddenly appeared from nowhere onthe table in front of himgawd gawd he creid spare me spare

assisting at a suicide

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i’m caughtsomewhere in between aliveand living a dream.no peacejust clicking machinesin the quiet of compazine.the walls caved in on me.

and she singsmy bird dressed in white.and she stingsmy arm in the night.i lay stillstill i’m ready to fight.have my lungsbut you can’t take my sight.the walls caved in tonight. and out herei watch the sun circle the earththe marrows collide in rebirthin god’s glory praisethe spirit calls out from the caves.the walls fell and there i lay...

caves

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saved.

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colophonartists + contributors: don marquis, andrew mcmahon, james cruzsource text: the annotated archy and mehitabel (penguin classics), by don marquis // the glass passenger, by andrew mcmahontypeface: helvetica neue, orator std, hoefler textyear + city: 2011 // chicago, illinoisthank you.

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