john bennett | dining out

Dining Out

I ate
lunch
in a
restaurant today
where all
around me,
in stern
accusative voices,
people fired
questions
printed on
little cards
at whoever
was sitting
across
from them.


Who pitched a
no-hitter
high on
acid?


What California
governor had
once been
Mr. Universe?


What Italian
opera soprano
committed cunnilingus
on a
cat?


What’s the
average number
of apples
in a
bushel basket?


How many
Afghani
terrorist children
were eliminated
by drones
between 2009
& 2011?


It was
like a
mass interrogation
going on
while over
the P.A.
system a
rap group
did their
version of
Rudolph the
Red-nosed Reindeer
& waitresses
glided between
the tables
with trays
of food
held high
overhead on
one hand.

click the Hcolom Press logo to visit the web page...HCOLOM PRESS is the heir to Vagabond Press, which began as a main player in the Mimeo Revolution of the Sixties and continued publishing right into the jaws of the new millennium. HCOLOM PRESS embodies the spirit of Vagabond Press, retooled for the times we live in.

Hcolom is Moloch spelled backwards. Moloch is an Old Testament deity to which children were sacrificed, a practice society still engages in with increased enthusiasm. Consumerism is the new Moloch, manifesting itself like cancer in war, politics, the arts and religion, in every nook and cranny of human endeavor, draining the intrinsic beauty out of life and mutilating the innocence and magic of childhood with its commercial meat hook. HCOLOM PRESS intends to publish books that by their nature repudiate this pernicious force–novels, poetry, children’s books and books that transcend genre.

Our launch book, in June of 2006, was John Bennett’s novel, Tire Grabbers, a fable of sorts, a reality book rooted in the fantasy of our times, the story of the coming of Moloch and the children who rise up in rebellion against it.

Books of kindred spirit will follow close on its heels. Go for it by clicking here… or hit the Hcolom logo above… or just hit any of the following covers…

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