Richard Froude

A to Z

a) I alone in the house and the sky is grey.

b) The elevator broken and the house an apartment on the 10th floor. The sky, outside, is grey, I am learning much of letters.

d) Living alone and to be broken and to mend. Living alone means the sky means the broken elevator, so, now, the stairwell. There is nobody here who will mend things.

j) How about some water with ice? It's a hard climb if you're not used to it. How about some water?

c) The house is based in being alone but you are here, so I must offer you something.

w) Everything I have I left in the broken elevator between the 7th and 8th floors. This, a foundation.

p) Rather than the stairwell, will you lie down? It is a hard climb.

e) Life. Oh, my life alone in the house.

f) The walls of the elevator something like mirrors. I see myself, the way I present myself if I were not myself. So, now, the stairwell.

g) What I learn about letters is about water and the water in my house is warm and dark. The sky is warm and grey.

v) Little by little, we are pulling the elevator between floors.

h) The cups for the water are cylinders, for the water are grey.

o) I will sell you my apartment and its water. It is a hard climb, it is. 10th floor, closest to 7th floor. 6th floor, 10th.

k) Rather than the balcony, the stairwell.

l) Rather than the apartment, the elevator.

m) I only recognize this when I leave the apartment. So my state as of this moment is stairwell.

i) I am house and stairwell. I, apartment.

n) Dark grey the swell. The elevator and oh, the foundation. This is how I mend, I pull.

x) Maybe I am house. I am water.

q) Water in the stairwell and alone in the house. Take your water and pull. From the 7th to the 10th. I am learning much of letters.

r) Than balcony, than alone.

s) Take some ice and dark grey.

t) I am alone in the elevator.

y) In the house is the elevator and so, now, the stairwell is filling with water. It is a hard climb and the house is broken. Oh, my life alone in water.

u) You had come and I had offered but the walls were not the answer.

z) Building houses in the stairwell, I am learning much of water.

Richard Froude lives in Denver. He is, most recently, the author of The History of Zero (Candle Aria, 2008). Newer writing can be found in the latest issues of Pageboy, Bombay Gin, Zero Ducats, and online at Conjunctions. With Erik Anderson and Anne Waldman he co-edits the mail art magazine Thuggery & Grace.

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