Dinochildren and the Unnamable

I recently ordered a few things from Mud Luscious Press, one of which was FAWN, FIONA, FJOLA, a chapbook by Matt Bell. A few days earlier, I downloaded JA Tyler’s new chapbook WHEN WE MAKE OUR DINOSAUR. Mud Luscious Press is also run by JA Tyler. Let the parallels roll.

WHEN WE MAKE OUR DINOSAUR reads like father’s musings to his son, how, when they make their dinosaur, the boy will see that their hands are the same hands, eyes the same eyes. It builds from subtle and touching hereditary likenesses to more elusive, metaphorical comparisons. They know that when the dinosaur roars, it is to say ‘Thank you,’ just like their mother/wife taught them to say thank you. They watch their dino grow into a teenage dinosaur, then necktie-wearing, ibuprofen-chewing dinosaur hurrying from the office to the next hangover. Told with Tyler’s nuanced prose, the story is understated yet evocative. Even now, two days after reading, I have twinges of nostalgia for the times I shared with the son I haven’t yet had.

Following WHEN WE MAKE OUR DINOSAUR, Matt Bell’s FAWN, FIONA, FJOLA skewers the other side of parenting. Maybe parenting doesn’t have the right connotation. It’s the act of being one, not practicing the position. And though the title hints of light, of life (young deer, white, flower) the word to remember here is deprivation. Spiritual, emotional, physical. A man and his wife sit in a room with a television-type screen, waiting to see their daughter on said screen. They gave their daughter to a talent agent on the promise of a better life for her. In return, they receive more rations, more electricity. Body pressed against the screen, fattened cells aching for the daughter, the wife says, ‘Please, please describe her to me. Tell me what I cannot see so that I might recognize it when it comes.’ By the final page, the last command to ‘Stop crying[…]stop crying right now,’ I mourned the daughter I’ve never had, the one I’ve never had to give up.

These two chapbooks were completely autonomous projects but, much like being a parent, the unexpected brought two independent elements together and created a wholly different emotional response.

WHEN WE MAKE OUR DINOSAUR (Artistically Declined Press) by JA TYLER.

FAWN, FIONA, FJOLA (Mudluscious Press) by Matt Bell