Aging Capriciously

These are two short pieces I wrote to share with my writing class this week. I wanted to bring something that would not be too long. We each have about ten minutes in class to share a piece of writing, short story or poetry with the other students. My first piece was just something fun. At least for me it was fun.

The Spy Who Talked by John Persico

Interrogator:  “Let’s get this over with quickly.  We know you are going to talk so why make it difficult for yourself.” 

Spy:  “Nothing you can do will ever make me talk, so do your best.”

Interrogator:  “We have ways of making anyone talk, it is only a matter of time before you do.”

Spy:  “Could you give me an example?  What are some of the things that you might do that you think would make me talk?”

Interrogator:  “We could do Chinese Water Torture on you.”

Spy:  “That’s been tried before without any luck.”

Interrogator:  “We have a new battery and could give you some electric shocks.”

Spy:  “I find electro shock treatments to be rather therapeutic.”

Interrogator:  We could smack your feet until you talk.”

Spy:  “I love having my feet massaged.  Could you do my back as well.”

Interrogator:  “Ok, I am getting tired of this repartee, you asked for it.”

Spy:  “Asked for what?”

Interrogator:  “You want us to play hard ball!”

Spy:  “Can you give me an example?”

Interrogator:  “Well for starters, we can cut off your dick and feed it to our pet piranha.”

Spy:  “By dick, do you mean my cock and balls or just my cock?”

Interrogator:  “We usually start with the cock and work down to the balls.”

Spy:  “What if I tell you that I don’t have a cock and balls?  I am actually a woman disguised as a man.”

Interrogator:  “This is why we hate women spies.”  You make things so difficult for us.”

Spy:  “Is that all you’ve got?”

Interrogator:  “Let me check with our torture consultant and see what we have for women spies.  It will only take a few minutes.”

A Few Minutes Later:

Interrogator:  “We don’t seem to have a lot of good torture ideas for women, but we have come up with one that we think will do the job.”

Spy:  “I’m ready.  Do your worst.”

Interrogator:  “We are going to force you to watch 100 hours of old ‘Father Knows Best’ reruns.”

Spy:  “Please no, anything but that.  I will talk!  I will tell you all I know.  The whole truth and nothing but the truth.  So, help me God.

370 words

Mission Accomplished by John Persico

You don’t know what you would do,

But I know what I did.

Like the good soldier I was,

I followed the orders that I was given.

245 Women, children, and old men,

All lined up in a row.

So peaceful now,

No more crying or screaming to hear.

Red people, yellow people, brown people, black people,

A rainbow of corpses all pressed to the ground.

“Sergeant, get the men back into formation,

time to move on to our next objective.”

“Yes sir, lieutenant,” I say,

As we march proudly away.

96 words