grutzworks3

I do wish they would all talk more down to earth, they all sound like recordings or automatic people, it's basically a false front, and something I'm truly put off by, everybody minding their PQ's and talking in robot language.

woman with head pain says, Perhaps I can think my way out of this. Boyfriend says, you've already been too thoughtful at Christmas. Young girl braids her hair tight against her head, and says, I think I've been letting too much down. Older man has a pick up truck full of bumper sticks, but says, Nobody is going to put words in my mouth. The lovers go out to enjoy the snow, and man says, I think I'm getting in too deep.

Drain the Pain by Sheri Grutz Stage is set with two young men and one one woman, sitting in hospital chairs spead out from each other, but within talking distance. There are a few end tables with several devices. The female doctor is wearing blue, and addressing the 3 of them. DOCTOR Ohhh kkkk, each of you has been assigned a therapist, annndd, that therapist has assigned you to meee, for this pain study. Is this correct? MAN 1 Yes. WOMAN Yes. MAN 2 I might have been assigned, but what do I have to sign, my life away? Nahhh, you will achieve free life, hopefulllllly! Is that anything like 'free love' because I don't want to take any drugs. The only thing high we're looking for is a reeeadinnng. This right here is called a reverse polar la vora, and it will show how many amps are in your heads, then store it. Who wants to go first? Am I going to get shocked? Ohhh you'll be shocked. I'm hop

I took a name by s.m.g. I took a name from Jesus and made it my own belief to calm every storm I took a name from my friends and made it give time where there wasn't a dime I took a name from nature and made it grow wings to soar over fears I took a name from the lottery and made it win over the hatred so much to give I took a name from food and made it satisfy this knawing craving And I took a name from you and made it into love shining in blue 

Making the Case for Newspapers (a brief sketch) by Sheri Grutz Stage is set up casual apartment living room, with a back stage door. Enter John's friend. John is sitting on the couch with stacks of newspapers. FRIEND What are you doing? JOHN I'm cutting out newspaper headlines. I'm taking them to my lawyer. Hmm, that's news to me. Look at this one: Jobs Galore. It's a comment on all my applications. I know you know how to apply yourself. Seriously, man, they directly comment about my life. All I have to do is open up the book Three Poems by John Ashberry, and I find a line written about me. That's poetry though, this is the media. And something else, when I look at all the pictures in the newspaper upside down, it's an optical illusion of aliens. Sure they're not illegals, that's in the news a lot. I'll show them legal, I'm getting my lawyer involved. He'll be her

Pablo's Letter to a Former Lover by Sheri Grutz Dear Margarita, The elimination of communism around the world has of course come to Chile, and it looks as if it is here to stay. The Damned Law clearly states, to ban the expression of ideas which appear to advocate "the implantation in the republic of a regime opposed to democracy or which attack the sovereignty of the country” All of my service for the people shall have to come to an end. To resist arrest I have been hidden by friends in this country basement. Every day Marcel brings me the newspaper with coffee and flat bread with honey. We discuss the situation so many are facing in the name of repression. The temperature in the basement stays very cool during this hottest time of the year. I read and reread Chekov and Tostoi and Gogol, then spend some time writing poetry, mostly dissident poetry that would surely not be allowed. I do have a radio beside me, and I tune into the evening report. T

The Christmas Miracle (a short story) by Sheri Grutz One day Mary's father came home to the farm and told her that in the back of the wagon was a cheerful surprise. Mary put her book down and ran outside into the nearly spring afternoon. “Father, what is it, what's the surprise?” “Go see for yourself.” He was hauling in bags of seed. Mary ran out to the front of the yard, and there, laying perfectly and staring up at her was a baby lamb. “Oh father, a lamb, a true blooded lamb!” “You can have it. You'll have to make a little bedding just inside the fense to keep it close, and also, it will take milk from a bottle until it gets full grown.” Her father had an early burn on his face and neck, and she wondered how far he had to go to get this lamb. “That's fine, I can do that. It's so soft, and pure white. A little angel, this lamb.” “It will be a good companion.” Mary brought an old blanket out of the barn, and

Untitled by Sheri Dawn comes in as a gray cat moving down the parking lot rising to any hand of time creature escaped from darkness drawn upon the whims of dead cars and sleeping bodies such a sight to see the first break moving as if born there slinking against the motion of air pressed against like a copy machine same day as yesterday roaming into a place most secure dawn is folded as a gray coated arm holding in the heat of clouded sun it makes the rounds to open eyes and leaden head to a worship of ash

Virginia Woolf's Non Acceptance Letter Dear Trustees: I received your letter addressed to me with lines “....of utmost respect,” “...it would be a real honor,” with the invitation to give this year's Commencement address to Smith college graduates. It really is quite a great offer, something that came out of the blue, and left me feeling truly accomplished. With that in mind, I had to ponder the entirety of my life, and with it, you must understand why I will not be able to fulfill this wish you have presented me. You see, I was home schooled, and I later watched my brothers go off to Cambridge, something that I was not privvy too. I have never been to university to pursue formal studies, and yet I've had strong women teach me the Greek mythology, Classics, and international literature. It would not be right for me to give a speech to graduates considering I was woman who knew ultimately it is a Man's World. Still, the thought is tempting, and w

The Red Shoes by Sheri Grutz Stella and her father lived in a thriving city with markets 5 blocks long, and houses being built by the dozen, her own was a cobble stone that was built for dwarfs, so her father had to duck down under doorways, and squeeze into furniture. He was a medicine man, and rumored to have some kind of ailment himself, and the two of them made very little money, except when anxious mothers would stop by, somewhat supplying them with firewood. “Father, something has got a hold of me,” “What is it, Stella?” “Something powerful, causing me to jerk. What should I take?” “I'll get you some sage.” He mixed up a small drink for his daughter, and told her to rest for the night. Sure enough, Stella had regained composure, and went to school happy as a lark. Stella loved school, and excelled in mathematics, so naturally her inclination went to science, as she had seen her father, a virtual chemist himself, help others and hers

Having Class (a brief sketch) by Sheri Grutz Lights up on a classroom setting. One man in center of room is dressed in costume, and everyone around him is looking at him and talking under their breaths. TEACHER: Dan? Call me Batman. Alright, Batman. You're going to be paired up with Robin. Your assignment is to address the drug problem in our country. Will that fly? Yes, I can fly. Don't you understand, I'm twice as smart in costume. Sky's the limit. Everybody else got their partners? Nods from the class. Alright, pair up and get started. BATMAN We need to meet after class, and go out on the street. ROBIN My wife keeps me on a short leash. We'll take a walk on the wild side. I'll hold onto ya. You're acing this class, how are you doing it? It's well known that those who dress the part play the smarts. You ain't getting me into one of those. Yes, I will. Why?

Thoreau Teaches Pocahantas' Poetry (a brief creative essay) (mostly made up) by Sheri Grutz David Thoreau had left college early, but knew enough to get hired by a school in a rural town, and he took the responsibility very seriously. It ended when he said to the superintendent, “I will not hit a child.” So he started his own school, already being master gardener, he taught the kids early cross hybrid plants and vegetables, taught them every tree, flower, and bush, and even let them walk and explore their way to getting back by marking their territory. “ Today, we have a special treat. I'm going to read to you from Pocahontas' poetry. Now, this is no ordinary poetry, this is specially done by a woman who gained access to the English language through a Free Book bartering by selling her hand made jewelry. Does anyone know of her story?” “ She fell in love with John Smith.” “ yes, that is correct. And she risked death having a relationship with

The Moon (a brief essay) by Sheri Grutz Poets and the mentaly ill alike, love songs about the moon by Pink Floyd, drawing that connection to lunacy and shifts in mood and tides, trying to figure out what the moon means to us, and for us, as humans. Consider the beginning of this poem, by Joseph Gordon Macleod: Moonpoison, mullock of sacrifice, Suffuses the veins of the eyes Till the retina, mooncoloured, Sees the sideways motion of the cretin crab Hued thus like a tortoise askew in the glaucous moonscape A flat hot boulder it Lividly in the midst of the Doldrums He made 3 words out that moon and gets to the question at the end of the poem: Is there nothing more soluble, more gaseous, more imperceptible? Nothing. That the moon would “abhor” us on earth in our burial grounds, hard to believe there's a place called heaven, and the relation here to a sideways moving crab to that of our eyes. Consider this poem by Linda Pastan: Isn't t