It had been more than thirty years since I fled Ostia. I had been slowly making my way west through the expanse of the Republic, consciously applying a tactic I had used for close to fifteen centuries: I remained a slave and managed to move from one master to another every ten or fifteen years. […]
Posted on March 20th, 2012 by Zsallia
Filed under: Immortality, Interludes, The Past | 1 Comment »
California, July, in the Year Of Our Lord One Thousand Eight Hundred and Twenty-Nine Gracious Lord, I am ever mindful that Your ways are mysterious and not prone to understanding by mortal men. What other explanation for the events of these weeks past? That You saw fit to deliver me from the duress of the […]
Posted on March 12th, 2009 by Zsallia
Filed under: Immortality, Love, The Past | 1 Comment »
I lay half-dozing in my little room, dreaming again, a disturbing recollection of the sea. I remembered the first time I crossed the Atlantic on a contract bound for the Virginia colony as an indentured maidservant, where so many had died in that stinking hold. I also dreamt of the much more recent, second long […]
Posted on February 27th, 2009 by Zsallia
Filed under: Love, The Past | Comments Off on Northern Mexico, 1829 CE
I came into this world fully formed, yet blank and senseless. It matters not a bit what I may have been before that point in time for it clearly had no effect upon what I became. I spent centuries wallowing in what I can only describe as a semi-sentient state of existence, never questioning or […]
Posted on February 16th, 2009 by Zsallia
Filed under: Immortality, The Past | Comments Off on There are no easy answers
“Are you sure about this?” Aiko asked me, her face radiating doubt as we drove through the campus. “No more clubs, no more bars… this is what’s left. Besides, they said one of the guys heard us in Chicago, so they must know what they’re getting.” She gave me her “Inscrutable Asian” look, and then […]
Posted on August 10th, 2008 by Zsallia
Filed under: 1963 to 1967, Immortality, The Past, Wounds Inflicted | Comments Off on Spring, 1965
There is a missing part of me, something lacking in the mosaic of who and what I am today. It is hardly apparent when I live in isolation, but of late I dwell amongst people and invite them into my life in ways I never have before. Even when married, those who became my family […]
Posted on March 19th, 2008 by Zsallia
Filed under: Immortality, Life, The Past, The Present | 1 Comment »
It had already turned cold before the bar emptied out and over the next hour the temperature dropped like a stone. I was wearing a light denim jacket over my stage outfit and the cold dug into me remorselessly, but I forced the sensation down, concentrating on listening and watching. Cigarette stubs littered the ground […]
Posted on February 7th, 2008 by Zsallia
Filed under: 1963 to 1967, The Past, Wounds Inflicted | 3 Comments »
The air was thick with spilled beer and old cigarette smoke.These little clubs always seemed so desolate once the crowds had filtered out. The four of us were sharing a bottle while the waitresses and the bartender cleaned up for the night. Neff and Aiko seemed relaxed and happy, but Dalene was cool and pensive, […]
Posted on January 3rd, 2008 by Zsallia
Filed under: 1963 to 1967, The Past, Wounds Inflicted | Comments Off on November, 1964
A crowd had gathered- they always did when Dalene sat outside with her guitar, but that evening it was larger than ever. We were leaving in the morning and it seemed everyone we had met that summer wanted to stop by to hear her play one last time. She sat on the steps of the […]
Posted on August 11th, 2007 by Zsallia
Filed under: 1963 to 1967, The Past, Wounds Inflicted | 3 Comments »
Human beings are variables. Failure to grasp this fact is the major failing of all Utopian visions regardless of their provenance, for such fantasies assume humanity can be controlled, made predictable, guided. Case in point: Four whores from New Orleans should find no haven in a small Virginia town, yet this is precisely what we […]
Posted on May 27th, 2007 by Zsallia
Filed under: 1963 to 1967, The Past, Wounds Inflicted | Comments Off on Virginia, Summer, 1964