THE REAL WORLD

Emma Winsor Wood

BLAZEVOX[BOOKS]
Buffalo, New York
The Real World
by Emma Winsor Wood
Copyright © 2021

Published by BlazeVOX [books]

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced without

the publisher’s written permission, except for brief quotations in reviews.

Printed in the United States of America

Interior design and typesetting by Geoffrey Gatza

Cover Art: Photo by Geoffrey Gatza

First Edition
ISBN: 978-1-60964-388-1
Library of Congress Control Number: 2021948683

BlazeVOX [books]
131 Euclid Ave
Kenmore, NY 14217
Editor@blazevox.org

publisher of weird little books

BlazeVOX [ books ]
blazevox.org

21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11
Cold Open

By serendipity alone, I am contacting you with a business suggestion

I am a writer of books

I deal in gold exportation

We are currently looking to fill a vacancy

To go after the emotional jugular

So to speak

We would be thrilled to see you joining our professional team

13
The Killing
Teaser Sequence

[Wind howling] [Bell clanging] [Owl hooting] [Train horn blowing]

[Screaming, panting] [Shrieking] [Panting] [Whimpering] [Shrieks]
[Flies buzzing] [Bell clanging] [Cell phone rings, beeps] [Thunder
rumbles]

Oh, snap.

17
Episode 1

For sixty minutes, two damaged detectives

move their faces in the ballpark of feeling.

The investigation won’t turn out. Those who had power

still do. Predictably the weatherman predicts more rain.

18
Episode 2

Another day another dead

chick. They’re naïve the way elk were

before the state brought back the wolves

Memory’s a drawing you keep drawing

till there’s an image there.

At the bottom of the drawn pond: body body body body body body body body
body body body.

Cue haunting instrumental melody

The person most likely to be the killer absolutely

isn’t. The leads seldom speak.

Conversation isn’t cheap

Memory’s a series of low-res film stills pinned

to a cheap cork board. Faces look like each other

but recognizable. In the secret room, perpetually

dreary weather

19
…

Every killer must long for the long

caress of the long hard look

The dead girl’s the only one who’s herself.

20
Episode 3

At this point, it’s an elimination game:

any day now, DNA in red flannel

will wash ashore to crack

the case, quick as the missing girl’s

mother cracks a Coor’s. Everyone’s ful

filling their stereotype.

21
Episode 4

Torn caution tape, graffiti, a flashlight in broad daylight.

No one’s lived here since the murder. No one’s

ever lived here. It’s a set

The closet sky glows in the dark.

The detective sees what

the boy might have seen. Another scene

inside a car. Another heavy metaphor

Days pass in no clear order.

The man waiting to hang isn’t guile

less but the detective’s finally figured

he didn’t do it. “It took this long . . .?”

On death row, outside’s a glimpse

through dirty windows, the larch faintly

attaching the sky to the earth

22