Cheese//
Slide//
Cracker - This is an experimental piece that was a product of over a month of free-writing exercises whenever certain words or fragments would come to me regarding various memories that would weave in and out of different sensory experiences of the here-and-now, often aided in their journeys and manifestations with the expedient of a cannabis edible taken in lieu of opiates to ease the pain of some back spasms I’ve been having a bit more frequently since the Covid-19 lockdowns, and the decreased levels of physical activity due to self-isolation. On especially bad days, that aforementioned medical edible is sometimes the only way I can play guitar sitting on a stool, let alone standing up.

As I’ve said more than a few times in the past, a lot of the earliest stages of my writing process are still very much the old-school pen and paper activity of jotting down things that pop into my head before I lose them… The odd times, where something comes to mind in awkward moments, where there is no immediate means of writing something down, or I’m stick in an immediate Task-At-Hand that requires full and undivided attention, the only poor option available to me is to try and commit it to immediate memory, which, nine times out of ten, is not very successful. Some ideas, unfortunately, ultimately wind up going the same place that missed opportunities do, alas.

Some of these ideas/memories come to me during guitar practice, or when I’m out for a walk (usually with the dog by my side), and a few in particular during some recent visits back to the recreational lake, where my family had a cottage that I spent summers at as a child, and where I still enjoy taking a swim whenever I get the opportunity. Often some very interesting inspirations will come to me, when I’m floating and moving around in that uniquely silky-embrace of the water, and the way that it’s almost impossible to describe unless you’re currently in it, and likewise, in the moment.
Indeed, sometimes the moment can feel profound enough that it might briefly feel as if it’s outside of the normal time stream, if that makes any sense.

A few of the captured memories and/or clumsily-regurgitated ones from hastily-constructed cardboard box homeless memory shelters are Biblical/religious in nature, such as the references to Manna, (e.g.: Exodus 16:1-36 (KJV)), and a few negative experiences over the years hearing statements/rants from several religious folks I’ve had dealings with, who had some very strong opinions about things such as people, such as myself, who remain single and childless (for whatever reason) well past their normal family-starting years of their twenties and thirties, and how, in the strong opinions of such folks, there is something automatically deviant and malignantly selfish about living such a ‘selfishness-sterile’ lifestyle… That, other than in rare cases, it is always one of the most selfish and self-centred choices that one can ever make… As one “Man of G-d” in particular put it: “It is the sort of selfishness that, if it is encouraged, and allowed to take root, will utterly destroy a society with a generation or two.”

As I’ve said in a few previous pieces, it’s an idea that, even if I don’t truly take it seriously, deep within my heart-of-hearts, it still, nevertheless manages to hang around like a bad smell that has a way of coming back to fill your nostrils at the most inopportune moments, such as those days, when you slip into depression.

And finally, the title of this piece comes from a comment that was made on a previous piece: ((Momma Ain’t Gonna) Nuke the Whales for You…), that I posted to my DeviantArt account, where, in response to an off-handed comment I made, wondering just how far it felt like the cheese was sliding off my cracker in the stir-crazy Covid-19 Pandemic lockdown, another writer known as myriadwhitedarkness floated the idea of it being: “…possible to get to Salvador Dalí-style levels of perception of existence regarding crackers and cheese…”

The comment made me chuckle, and it stuck with me enough that I wanted to try and use it at some point, if I ever found a place, where it might fit, So myriad, please take your well-deserved bow. :)