Memory

Celine’s Ellipses by Akira Ohiso

A physician’s assistant from Tulsa put the cuff over my thick denim Levi’s shirt…the lower number is a bit high…the doctor did it 🔟 minutes later, and it’s “much better.”…lab draw to measure statin’s progress…pilgrim’s regress…2 vials of 🩸…DOB label…verbal confirmation…check the app for results…Celine’s ellipses because I am lazy…or I want to ride the crest of freedom…mail order scripts…hospital elevators slow today…the Skybridge…the Chapel…a Chinese man patches a wall between two elevators…I look for EXITS…Reserved For Kaufmann parking…not Andy…MD BMW…Market is vacancy…4 Lease…square footage…Foursquare…Jackpots on LED…pant entrails collect maple oak puddle water…unSWEDISH 💉…SineWAR & piece of shit under 🏧 … Planet Shitness… ALGREEN’S…WeWorked…moving 🎯…S is a safe passage in the Red Sea…vestigial doors post-pandemic ➡️…girl in orange snaps #selfie next to 🎃🎃…plastic flowers in real dirt…Skittle hues…🐓Big Mac…limited ⏳…the Yankees win, thaaa Yankees win….

Summer Jeremiad by Akira Ohiso

Saturday summer nights are noisy. Sirens blare through intersections and echo off buildings along Market Street. Water response, fire, life-saving measures.

Last night a man yelled, “Get the fuck off my block.” Another man with feigned machismo responded, “I’m standing right here.”

Silence followed. New encampments on Market and the 14th Ave NW corridor seem to connect to late-night activity. After eight years in Seattle, the unhoused issues are acute.

My son says matter-of-factly, “Did you hear Trump was shot?” His rhetorical question is just more content temporarily streamed before his eyes. He follows with, “What’s for lunch?”

Local over global is a better coping skill these days.

In mid-afternoon, we drive to a strip mall in Northgate to get old-school ice cream at Baskin Robbins. I'm just sick of the bougie shops selling vegan and organic flavors when all I want is a soft-serve cone with sprinkles. Nothing says ice cream like goat cheese, lavender, and black charcoal.

Growing up on Long Island, I miss walking to the bottom of my block to Carvel. It was a drive-up Carvel built in the 1950s to cater to the burgeoning car culture as families moved from urban New York to the suburbs of Long Island.

It was a magical childhood experience to look up at a giant cone and the neon scripted sign: C A R V EL. Hand-painted signs of sundaes hung from the large pane windows. Staff, primarily high school kids, would slide open a window to take your order. On hot summer days, you could feel the air conditioning escape briefly before they slid the window closed to swirl a cone and then dip it in sprinkles.

I ordered a Cherry Bonnet or a Butterscotch Sundae. On the walk home, I preoccupied myself with licking the melting ice cream before it reached my hand. My younger sister needed parental intervention to manage rivulets across her knuckles and wrists.

In 1983, The Beastie Boys released “Cookie Puss,” a rap ode to the Carvel ice cream cake. The song featured recorded crank calls to Carvel in a pre-digital era when a phone call could not be traced. Eventually, the *69 feature was available by the phone company for a fee, and you could call back the crank caller with gleeful revenge. Today, we dox someone.

I find solace in print media.

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Triggers Now Available For Digital Download by Akira Ohiso

Triggers is a collection of meditations on memory and identity in a digital age. I use various media -digital and analog-to create a meaningful and cohesive document for an elusive future. Grammarly, an AI-powered app, edited text. Slidebook provided the layout. It’s available as a digital download on Issuu for $1.99.

To purchase Triggers.