{"id":4828,"date":"2024-12-01T18:15:38","date_gmt":"2024-12-01T22:15:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/?page_id=4828"},"modified":"2024-12-01T18:15:39","modified_gmt":"2024-12-01T22:15:39","slug":"2024-the-popularity-of-bombs","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/fiction-archive\/2024-the-popularity-of-bombs\/","title":{"rendered":"2024 The Popularity of Bombs"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Pinball Wizard (detail), GJ Gillespie <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

The Popularity of Bombs<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

By Richard Downing<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

\u201cNot tonight, dear, they\u2019re cluster bombing the town this evening.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c \u2026 ?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou didn\u2019t know? It\u2019s been all over the news since this afternoon, probably even leak into the next news cycle. This is the big deal right now. Bigger even than Lamar.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c \u2026 \u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI <\/span>know<\/span><\/i> he\u2019s not doing well.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c \u2026 \u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI <\/span>know<\/span><\/i> rehab\u2019s not easy. I read what\u2019s going on.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c \u2026 ?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know when exactly the bombing will begin. Sometime between 5 and 7 is what they said on the news.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c \u2026 ?\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI forget which news. \u201c\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c \u2026 ?\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cNo, it wasn\u2019t 13. I\u2019d have remembered if it was 13. They have such chemistry, those two. No one reads the news better than our Tom and Beth.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c \u2026 ?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYes, I heard that.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026 \u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYes, it <\/span>was<\/span><\/i> loud.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c \u2026 ?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cNo, I\u2019m not sure what a cluster bomb is. It might just be a <\/span>way<\/span><\/i> of bombing and not even a bomb.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c \u2026 ?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cNo, I don\u2019t think they\u2019ll hit our house. They\u2019re not after us, for goodness sake. We\u2019ve never done anything. There\u2019s no reason to target us. I\u2019m sure it\u2019s someone else on the street, probably someone at the other end, someone we barely know. And don\u2019t worry so much. They can be very precise when they want to be.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c \u2026 ?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cNo, I don\u2019t know who \u201cthey\u201d is\u2014<\/span>are<\/span><\/i>? It\u2019s not up to us to know these things anyway. That\u2019s their job. So relax. We\u2019re not on any lists that I know of. You\u2019re not on a list, are you? I remember that time you went outside and looked around.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c \u2026 \u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI <\/span>know<\/span><\/i> that was years ago. But still, you did it. And they asked you why, remember?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c \u2026 \u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYes, and you told them you weren\u2019t sure why, that you\u2019d just felt the need to look around but that it wasn\u2019t all it was cracked up to be and you\u2019d just as soon be back inside, which is where they told you to go, which is good because if you hadn\u2019t been inside you\u2019d never have known about Lamar and Khloe and all the rest.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n

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Richard Downing has won the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, New Delta Review, and New Woman Magazine writing contests, received the Solstice editor\u2019s award, and been given a Pushcart nomination. His work appears nationally and internationally in over fifty journals including Arts & Letters, Malahat Review, Juked, and Two Thirds North. He holds a PhD in English, is a voting rights activist, dog lover, and longtime environmentalist<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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GJ Gillespie, a collage artist living in a 1928 farmhouse on Whidbey Island, WA, has garnered 22 awards and exhibited his work in 65 shows, with over 168 publications featuring his creations. Alongside his studio practice, Gillespie runs Leda Art Supply, a company specializing in premium sketchbooks, channeling his passion for empowering other artists. Whether through his own vivid collage compositions or his exceptional tools, Gillespie remains committed to the transformative power of art. Gary Gillespie, artist https:\/\/www.gjgillespieartistic.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Popularity of Bombs By Richard Downing \u201cNot tonight, dear, they\u2019re cluster bombing the town this evening.\u201d\u00a0 \u201c \u2026 ?\u201d \u201cYou didn\u2019t know? It\u2019s been all over the news since Continue Reading →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":590,"featured_media":0,"parent":1301,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4828"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/590"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4828"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4828\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5216,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4828\/revisions\/5216"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}