Match

In one of the Doomstown houses, scheduled to be destroyed by nuclear blast on May 5th, 1955, two mannequin women are lying in bed together. Who arranged these women? Who played matchmaker, and according to what script? Was this the work of a single man playing out a fetishistic fantasy transgressing the Ike-branded, cookie-cutter box in which he lived and breathed? Did the government coordinate this sleeping arrangement? Was the pairing a mistake, or an oversight? If it had been a mannequin husband and mannequin wife, would they have been placed in separate beds, a reflexively conditioned nod to the intimacy stranglehold imposed by the Hays Code? The mannequin women lie flat on their backs, staring up at the ceiling. Forever open and blinkless eyes, what were they dreaming? Were they constellating an unmapped life together, an illicit destiny? Were they seeing their lifeless lives flash before their eyes, an expendable sideshow to atomic windfire and American fearmongering?

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About John Biscello

Originally from Brooklyn, NY, writer, poet, performer, and playwright, John Biscello, has lived in the high-desert grunge-wonderland of Taos, New Mexico since 2001. He is the author of four novels, Broken Land, a Brooklyn Tale, Raking the Dust, Nocturne Variations, and No Man’s Brooklyn; a collection of stories, Freeze Tag, two poetry collections, Arclight and Moonglow on Mercy Street; and a fable, The Jackdaw and the Doll, illustrated by Izumi Yokoyama. He also adapted classic fables, which were paired with the vintage illustrations of artist, Paul Bransom, for the collection: Once Upon a Time, Classic Fables Reimagined. His produced, full-length plays include: LOBSTERS ON ICE, ADAGIO FOR STRAYS, THE BEST MEDICINE, ZEITGEIST, U.S.A., and WEREWOLVES DON’T WALTZ.
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