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Talking In Titles (Our Parallel Universe)
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by Jacqueline Ostrowicki
What if everything you typed outside the lines was false and
(only what you wrote within a pair of parenthesis could ever be true.
Consequently,) people communicated through subject headers?
We would be left with a coded and condensed vocabulary, forcing
everyone to say what they really mean. (I adore words, I despise words;
their simplicity and complexity. Precision results in clarification,
they told me, but I only got confused by the subtleties. How many
ways can you really say help? Or love?) Things mean what they mean,
at least in theory. We could have pop-up windows outside our heads
with our hidden meanings unveiled, forcing us to be honest with the world.
(I love you, I have always loved you. What have we done with the past
ten years?) I am a ghost, I feel like a ghost, sometimes I long to be a ghost.
(I have found that time and space are interchangeable. From long distances,
you must shout loudly to get your meaning across. Therefore, few words are used, but
much effort is invested in sending them off. Although the words may arrive as
whispers, they are very important…they have traveled a long way.) Ghosts know
of what I speak. They are never verbose, in their communications. They reach
out from their world, saving energy to hurl their sparing words across the void.
(i miss you has a million and one meanings.) People always misinterpret
ghosts, you know. Partly because they frighten us.
(talk to you later, you reply.)
(are you thinking minutes or years?)
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Jacqueline Ostrowicki
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