Mark Phillips' Pages: Workbook: September 2003

Jacob Lawrence, "The Life of Harriet Tubman No. 11" (1940) — Jacob Lawrence, The Life of Harriet Tubman No. 11. "$500 Reward! Runaway from subscriber on Thursday night, the 4th inst., from the neighborhood of Cambridge, my negro girl, Harriet, sometimes called Minty. Is dark chestnut color, rather stout build, but bright and handsome. Speaks rather deep and has a scar over the left temple. She work a brown plaid shawl. I will give the above reward captured outside the county, and $300 if captured inside the county, in either case to be lodged in the Cambridge, Maryland, jail. (Signed) George Carter, Broadacres, near Cambridge, Maryland, September 24th, 1849" (1940)

Workbook: September, 2003

September 30, 2003: Her picture on my couch.
September 29, 2003: "Every day I expect to pick up the newspaper and read that scientists have located the soul."
September 28, 2003: Her picture in a white frame.
September 27, 2003: We each feared to become like our fathers.
September 26, 2003: Her little daughter's picture on the wall.
September 25, 2003: The author performs an impersonation of himself at the local Comedy Club.
September 24, 2003: I carry her ring in my pocket.
September 23, 2003: Anarchism for him is like a state of perpetual highschool pranks...
September 22, 2003: How lovely her face was then.
September 21, 2003: Matted tail. Yellow mucus hardening at the corners of his mouth.
September 20, 2003: Maids, Mexicans, mid-twenties.
September 19, 2003: The Backstreet Man writes a letter.
September 18, 2003: Her: I'm only doing this for you.
September 17, 2003: That the relationship was unhealthy from the beginning.
September 16, 2003: Pain, astonishment.
September 15, 2003: We drank the wine many days ago...
September 14, 2003: As I stepped from the landing of my pension I became swept-up in one of the feeder marches.
September 13, 2003: Bumper sticker on the rear hatch of a very beat-up Toyota Corolla DX hatchback:
September 12, 2003: Look in the rear-view mirror.
September 11, 2003: Banners, signs, slogans. One hundred fifty thousand people.
September 10, 2003: I'd had doubts for some time.
September 9, 2003: Thin man, tired-looking, sallow...
September 8, 2003: It's like the constant background radiation of the Big Bang.
September 7, 2003: Thin boys in a '68 Chevy Nova, canary yellow.
September 6, 2003: Introduction. People dislike reading online.
September 5, 2003: More than anything else, the purpose of her life on this earth...
September 4, 2003: This story has possibilities, but it reads now like a rough draft with ideas notated in the margins.
September 3, 2003: "Story" as reactionary literary ideology.
September 2, 2003: Books on the floor:
September 1, 2003: I took it all very personally.