Flechewounds

Category: Writing

  • Where You Drive


    I live on the street under the 405.

    You stare at your phone at the light in your Ford.

    Just ignoring my sign on your morning drive.


    It’s fuckin’ hard each day to just stay alive.

    My girl turns tricks to eat, ain’t really a whore.

    We live on the street under the 405.


    Is it good or bad luck that I still survive?

    My mom was a junkie, that opened the door.

    I’ll be here in the rain on your evening drive.


    Been under this freeway, it’s goin’ on five.

    They treat us like shit when we finish our tours.

    It sucks on the street under the 405.

    This ain’t what we want for the rest of our lives.

    But shelters take your fix, can’t go there no more.

    I’ll see you tomorrow on your morning drive.

    Was it an overdose or a suicide?

    Or just really bad shit in yesterday’s score?

    We die on the street under the 405.

    You won’t notice me gone on your morning drive.

  • Proposition 99 – Yes on Yes

    Proposition 99 – Yes Means Yes

    Official Title and Summary

    Prop 99 YES MEANS YES

    • Requires that a Yes on a proposition means that the title of the Proposition has the force of law
    • Enables the Attorney General to enforce the law against prior propositions
    • Bars amendment to propositions to clarify them

    Arguments in Favor of Proposition 99

    DON’T VOTE ON TWEETS, VOTE YES ON YES MEANS YES. A small group of SPECIAL INTERESTS, TRIAL LAWYERS, INSURANCE COMPANIES and BIG CORPORATIONS want the voters of California to continue to be befuddled by poorly written, contradictory ballot propositions. Proposition 99 – the YES MEANS YES proposition changes that. A YES vote on Proposition 99 says NO to those SPECIAL INTERESTS, TRIAL LAWYERS, INSURANCE COMPANIES and BIG CORPORATIONS that want to expand the freedom of speech of California proposition writers, who work tirelessly at creating confusing proposition language.

    THE CURRENT RULES MUST BE CHANGED. Today, a proposition that is intended to say “NO” to something is often worded to require that you say “YES” to it, causing voter confusion. SPECIAL INTERESTS, TRIAL LAWYERS, INSURANCE COMPANIES and BIG CORPORATIONS pay thousands of dollars to proposition writers to come up with ambiguous titles that are no longer than the average tweet. Hidden behind these often unthreatening titles are propositions that CAN RAISE YOUR TAXES, CAN INFRINGE UPON YOUR PROPERTY RIGHTS and CAN FORCE YOU TO ACCEPT LIFESTYLES THAT ENDANGER YOU AND YOUR FAMILY.

    The SPECIAL INTERESTS fighting YES MEANS YES don’t care about YOUR CHILDREN, YOUR PROPERTY OR YOUR HEALTH.

    VOTING YES ON YES MEANS YES ends all of that. A YES VOTE ON YES MEANS YES brings clarity to the California Proposition process. Don’t say no to yes, SAY YES TO YES MEANS YES.

    Ashley Carbunkle President, California Association of Idiots

    Mike Johanson Officer (Retired), Donald Trump Taxpayer Association

    Rebuttal to Argument in Favor of Proposition 99

    Don’t let them fool you. SPECIAL INTERESTS, TRIAL LAWYERS, INSURANCE COMPANIES and BIG OIL COMPANIES want to limit your ability to PROTECT THE ENVIRONMENT, PROTECT YOUR FAMILY AND PROTECT YOUR PROPERTY. They want to INFRINGE upon the FREE SPEECH of Californians.

    Proposition 99 is misleadingly titled as “Yes Means Yes.” In fact, a vote for Proposition 99 is a NO vote to freedom of speech and your Constitutional Rights.

    DON’T GIVE THE SPECIAL INTERESTS ANOTHER TOOL to take money and property from you. VOTE NO ON PROPOSITION 99.

    A NO VOTE SAYS YES TO YOUR FREEDOM! SAY NO TO YES MEANS YES.

    Zoe Avila-Thomas President, California Proposal Writers Association

    Boris Yevchenko Professor of Linguistics, University of LaVerne and Shirley.

    Argument Against Proposition 99

    A YES VOTE ON YES MEANS YES MEANS NO to OUR SCHOOLS, OUR HOSPITALS, OUR VETERANS AND OUR CHILDREN.

    STOP SPECIAL INTERESTS, TRIAL LAWYERS, INSURANCE COMPANIES and OIL COMPANIES from taking away your RIGHT TO FREE SPEECH. VOTE NO ON YES MEANS YES.

    Right now, you are free to write and name a proposition as you see fit. Then, you can get signatures and put your proposition on a state-wide ballot and have it become law. Proposition 99 infringes on this right.

    Proposition 99 is a dangerous, wasteful proposition that will RAISE YOUR TAXES without giving one cent to SCHOOLS, HOSPITALS or THE ENVIRONMENT. Proposition 99 is the worst kind of STEALTH PROPOSITION AND MUST BE DEFEATED.

    Lets face it, poorly informed voters are the only ones confused by “confusingly” worded propositions. Well informed voters learn what their vote means and know what they’re doing. Don’t hand even more power to LOW INFORMATION VOTERS.

    Think about it, had Proposition 99 been the law before 2012, gays would have had even more years to pervert the minds of children through their sham marriages. Illegal immigrants would have been able to marry their way to green cards through homosexual marriage and even more of these people would be taking food stamps, clogging our schools and abusing our health care system.

    By carefully wording propositions, we can avoid this. People can draft propositions that will garner the blind support of LOW INFORMATION voters by simply structuring and naming it in a certain way. DON’T LET THE SPECIAL INTERESTS TAKE THIS RIGHT FROM YOU.

    VOTE NO ON PROPOSITION 99. PROTECT YOUR RIGHT TO SAY YES – VOTE NO ON YES MEANS YES.

    Zoe Avila-Thomas President, California Proposal Writers Association

    Boris Yevchenko Professor of Linguistics, University of LaVerne and Shirley.

    Rebuttal to Argument Against Proposition 99

    DON’T LET THEM SCARE YOU AGAIN.

    THE SPECIAL INTERESTS, TRIAL LAWYERS, INSURANCE COMPANIES and BIG CORPORATIONS are at it again, trying to convince you that it is important for NO to mean YES and YES to mean NO. They are continuing to try to use the “freedom of speech” as an argument to TAKE AWAY YOUR RIGHTS, ALLOW ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS INTO THIS COUNTRY, AND WASTE YOUR MONEY.

    YES MEANS YES means simply YES MEANS YES. No longer will Californians be faced with a choice of YES meaning NO, or NO meaning YES. It forces proposition writers to make these things clear so that any registered voter, regardless of education, income or language, can VOTE YES when they mean YES.

    SAY NO TO SPECIAL INTERESTS – SAY YES TO OUR CHILDREN, OUR FAMILIES AND OUR HEALTH. SAY YES TO YES MEANS YES.

    Ashley Carbunkle President, California Association of Idiots

    Mike Johanson Officer (Retired), Donald Trump Taxpayer Association

  • Mort’s Crossing, Population 10

    It doesn’t get too lonely out here – about six months after a new one gets dropped in, he stops screaming and sobbing. Just dries up, I guess.

    There are about ten of us out here, I was the third. Shallow graves, they call them. A tombstone of pebbles. Just down the dirt path from her trailer. About once a year she gets the blood lust and I get a new neighbor.

    I don’t like the shallow grave. Too hot in the day, too cold at night, scorpions too close for comfort. I’d prefer six-feet-under in a nice, damp, cool and crowded cemetery – maybe the one in L.A. where Marilyn Monroe is buried or the crypt holding Valentino’s bones. At least then, I’d have a lot more neighbors to talk to. I wouldn’t be just counting the days, each measured by the hot sun baking what’s left of me.

    Hell, I’m close enough to the surface to know when I’ll get a new neighbor. First, the grunts of passion. Then, muffled screams which go on for a few hours or so. Then, nearby scraping, a thud, and the soul of a new neighbor, complaining, crying, begging for release from eternity, drops in.

    I’m also close enough to hear the radio news – she blasts it from the trailer while she’s fixing her truck. Salesman disappears along I-10. Trucker missing. Pastor of the First Full Pentacostal Church not found after exhaustive search. The generally say the guy’s name. Makes it easy to introduce myself to the new guy.

    “Hi Bob, I’m Jerry. Welcome to the neighborhood” I say with a bit of a snicker. Usually, I get the “What happened? What about my family? Will they find me?” sort of questions.

    I’ve learned not to be too definite or too clear. Being kidnapped, ritually executed, and buried in a shallow grave in West Texas takes some getting used to – especially for those of us just passing through. I keep it to general.

    I’ll never forget the question I asked Dave – the guy who showed up a year after me. He was whimpering about his family. I asked “you had life insurance, no?” He let out a wail. “No,” he cried, “I forgot to renew it!” It was ten weeks before we could talk again.

    It generally takes six months for someone to accept their new reality. For about 3 months, before their soft bits get eaten away by the carpenter ants, they wonder what happened to their manhood. For some reason, they feel that it is missing – and it is. Probably in a jar on her credenza. That’s just her M.O. … our manhoods are her trophies.

    Then they settle down and begin to wonder if they will ever be found. Does it matter? I usually try to assure them that this place isn’t that lonely – she’s 30 and there are already 10 of us – a minyan. By the time she turns 50, we could have our own sign in West Texas off of US-90: Mort’s Crossing, Population 30.