The Dewdney Principle book length reading, The Don Valley Brick Works

Caucasian male, mid 50s, with shaggy grey hair, half glasses, v-neck sweater and khaki pants. Behind him, rolling green. Most directly behind him, a line of yellow caution tape. In front, rows of covered tables, clothed and blanketed cutlery, sweating water glasses and a captive audience.

The Natural History, Christopher Dewdney (ECW)

Pages 3-117. But for the purposes of this entry, I shall blindfold myself and pick one at random.

Page 37:

Constant gushing thrill the night
permeated. Eyes, ears, mouth, nostrils,
genitals, hands and feet. A night unmoved
by crickets until dawn. Red haven. Free
stone. Midnight in the hyper-personal
theatre of an August moon. Its reflection
in the lake an electric mirage loomed
a dazzling monotonous dream light.
The water quick molecular sand.

Ascend and merge.

As the dark rolls in, the second act is unveiled, stars on a downtown city summer night. I was not there*. But I've imagined it a few times, their heads to the side, rocked forward, settled back. How can I not write to fingers rimming the mouths of beer bottle tops, adjusting the knife, now the fork, aligned, then discarded. The moment you stop listening, "Is that a word?" and realize that your tongue is floating. You look at her. She looks at him. She and he are looked at, as yet another looks on you. A quick smile then you're back to the words, oblivious.

and orange. Unnatural grace of her moving.
Her urgent and delicate choreography.
Silk and gold. Leaves sliding long taut
abdominal trails across the skin palace
warm devon cream. Darkly traced
in a silence our vision does not seam.

The Scream Literary Festival menu for the evening:

First Course

Chilled cucumber soup with beet mousseline served with a black pepper dragonfly cracker
Mixed field greens with toasted pine nuts and nasturtiums, tossed with a honey orange vinegrette

Second Course
A mixture of wild and cultivated mushroom crepes drizzled with basil pesto
Ontario smoked trout platter
Brown and wild rice salad with cranberries and toasted walnuts

Third Course
Fossil and shell shaped specialty chocolates
Blue Cheese drizzled with juniper scented honey
Platter of Niagara Region fruits

*I'm never not going again.