Bob Heman

INFORMATION

Sometimes it is a light that changes them. Sometimes it is a random fold in a piece of paper or the way a collar is buttoned. Sometimes it is a breeze that rises up unexpectedly. Sometimes it is a word the woman says in her sleep.



INFORMATION

She has a full life: there are frogs to be kissed and bears to be chased and bees to be captured. There is a tree she must move so the forest can start again. There is a house she must measure and label.



INFORMATION

Because there is a woman. Or because there is not a woman. Because there is an owl. Or because there is not an owl. Because there is a tree. Because there are sentences like these.



INFORMATION

It was the day he brought out the hat. It was the week the women returned. It was the month of the big rains. It was the year of the forest. It was the decade of going away.



INFORMATION

Thinks the soap must be white and the forest green and the ocean an extension of the sky. Thinks the red of the blood is a warning. And the black of the coal a place where they can hide.



INFORMATION

Moves the station so that it is in a different place each time the machine passes by.



INFORMATION

Inside of the classroom the bears are only counting tools, the fox a metaphor for the distance they have lost.



INFORMATION

Speaks as she has always spoken. The numbers do not make a difference. Sometimes a line is drawn and sometimes it is not. She can only cross it if she thinks she can.



INFORMATION

There were forests that were too dark to enter. There was a door that was bolted shut.



INFORMATION

There were fruits that were the wrong color and vegetables that were the wrong shape. There was a man who was a woman and a woman who was a man. There were clouds that were heavier than the sky. There were animals that had too many legs.



INFORMATION

What they opened could not be opened. Inside there was no inside.



INFORMATION

Uses words to close the door, to open the window, to change the fox into a bear. Uses words to reposition the sky, to change the crate into a church and the church into a slaughterhouse. Uses words to make the man larger than he really is. Uses words to make the woman repeat.

Bob Heman’s INFORMATION pieces continue. They have appeared in numerous publications including Otoliths, Sentence, Skidrow Penthouse, Right Hand Pointing, Clockwise Cat, and the annual Brevitas event book. Most of his life happens on the page.
 
 
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