Exodus

by | Jul 15, 2021 | [Definitions to] Words in Danger


v.

  1. To aspire to a conventional sort of virtuosity.
  2. To fancify one’s language and / or conversation, and in the service of one’s own dickishness.
  3. To cloak with a contronym.
  4. To troll while pretending to prophesy, or vice versa. This is why we recommend the use of a
    PO box for all mail order commerce. Behind that paywall, a bathroom with a push-button lock, a
    keyhole plugged with the same cotton balls used for self-frottage, an egg beater, the hot broth of
    narrowcast outrage.
    conj.
  5. A transitional word generally following two phrases that are metaphorically linked, albeit with
    one prominent exception, which itself typically follows this word.
    As in, “My mother squeezed out water with her hands, present there were once machines to do it
    better; exodus, it mattered then to do it better than a human could.”
  6. A less common variation: a transitional word generally following two phrases that are
    metaphorically linked, albeit with a commonly accepted exception that the speaker intends to
    question in this particular usage. Associated with archaic plays and conservative newspapers.

Joe Milazzo is the author of the novel Crepuscule W/ Nellie, two volumes of poetry — The Habiliments and Of All Places In This Place Of All Places — and several chapbooks (most recently, @p_roblem_s). His writings have appeared in Black Clock, Black Warrior Review, BOMB, Prelude, Tammy, Texas Review and elsewhere. He is an Associate Editor for Southwest Review and the Founder/Editor-In-Chief of Surveyor Books. Joe lives and works in Dallas, TX, and his virtual location is http://www.joe-milazzo.com. Here in these definitions in danger are what these words now mean, or might mean, or must mean if they wish to escape the new world incommensurate with the perceptions they’re accustomed to inhabiting.

Eric Lindley is a musician, writer, and artist living in the bay area. His writing has appeared in Fence, Joyland, Tammy, and elsewhere, and other work at the Santa Monica Museum of Art, Machine Project, Telic Arts Exchange, The Knitting Factory, and The Smell. With Janice Lee and Joe Milazzo, he co-edited the online interdisciplinary arts journal [out of nothing] from 2009 to 2015. You can find Eric’s work online at https://likeoverflowing.com/