Josef Firmage Miyasato
Fictions & Other Tales
by Josef Miyasato
Riggins, ID
Jacob had flown in from Arizona and stepped out the swinging-screen door into the cold Riggins’ air. Mornings were even colder in Idaho than he remembered. His dad never liked the holidays. It had been this way since the divorce. After the Halloween booze-fest with candy corn, and silver-crowned-smiles, his dad preferred Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years to be filled with Merle Haggard, Hank Williams Jr., anemic conversations, and maybe a good Tom Clancy.
Even ten years post-divorce, he remained an “isolationist.” That was Jacob’s term in college when he had his dad “figured out.” Back then he was always quoting him some Psych-101 BS. He had been so insistent. This is the way it went for a while.
Things were different now. His dad liked him there, but more so as a silent partner. And Jacob allowed his dad to his quietude, while they were together in Idaho for these five days; his dad with his memories, and he with the sunrise, a walk through the snow to Miss Grady’s living room bookshop, and maybe a shared sunset on the porch.
What is Manimal Fiction?
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What is Manimal Fiction?​A character of the finest wheat and barley; a movement of sorts. Manimal Fiction is raw and drippy in a shrink-wrapped-WinCo meat-packaging-system sort of flair. That is, Manimal is the blue-collar hero who is always trying to become something else, something better—like Travis Bickle at church, or Harvey Pekar in the annals of literature. Manimal Fiction is concerned with the becoming, and within the sphere of the becoming is the inverted reality of origin. We become from what we already are. They say that matter never ceases to exist, so can we ever become more than what we are offered without casting off the seed forever? Manimal Fiction will probably never know but that’s not the point. Manimal is amongst the beasts of burden, for it is burden he is born with. Yes, Manimal is not as elusive as the jaguar or as fierce as the wolverine but it is that Manimal Fiction does not fake the funk. Manimal Fiction is not larger than life. Manimal Fiction resides in the corner, eating just above the rats. Manimal Fiction is what the group “Love Drug” calls the “i am.” Manimal Fiction is not defined by the shiny tables upon which some will always feast. Manimal Fiction is anti-hero squalor and alley spit-fire. Manimal Fiction knows “Bobby Bird is the Devil in Blue Jeans.” Manimal Fiction was raised on Beast Master, DC Cab, and gut checks dealt by his shit-kicking father. Manimal Fiction is as accessible as a paycheck. You have to work to get him, and sometimes it may not even be worth it.
