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DrDebug Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-24-05 12:30 PM
Original message
Mail Call - A Story
A month ago GoddessOfGuiness had her weird word of the day. And the word was "caliginous". I looked the word up and arrived at a poem written by somebody on deathrow and I decide to write him a letter. ( http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=105&topic_id=3064269 )

I received a letter back and he asked to publish the following story. This story is written by a friend of him, Steve Mobley, who was also on deathrow. Even though the victim's family went to Board of Parole to speak on his behalf, because they didn't want him to be executed, the sentence was carried out and he executed on March 1st 2005. He wrote the following story.


Mail Call

A bottle, washing upon the shore.

I rush to it. Discover a note inside: "We miss you. We love you. Tell us what you need. What is it that you want." Colors. Send leaves from trees of Autumn's gold, Petals of red from Springs Flowers, and blades of Summer's tall, green grass from home. I build ships, a fleet of ships to ferry word of my wants, and set them to sail. I wait, and while waiting, the seasons change.

A bottle, washing upon the shore.

I run to it. Retrieve the note inside: "Apologies for the delay. Been busy. (Doesn't elaborate.) Miss and love you. Let us know what we can do."
Books. Send books with pictures - colored pictures of trees, of flowers in bloom and blades of grass. I build a ship to ferry word of my wants, and set it to sail. I wait, and while waiting, new seasons come, ten go ... then come and go again.

A bottle, washing upon the shore.

I trot to it. Fumble to free the note inside: "Been a wild time on this end. (Details, please!...) Hope you're well. Think of you often. Do you need anything? Let us know what you want."
Images, Paint pictures with words. Tell me how the moonlight slips through the trees, settling on the flowers and grass like ash from a distant fire. I build a boat, scrawl my wants into its side, and set it to sail. I wait, and while waiting, the seasons lose distinction... blurring.

A bottle, washing upon the shore.

I stumble to it. Am too tired to shake the note free.

Luckily, I know what it says.
Hope. Give me hope. Draw me pictures of the trees and flowers and grass. Crayon them like a carnival - colored guarantee: "Sun will rise or your money back" (minus the fine print, thank you.) I build a raft, and set it to sail. I wait and while waiting, my world turns bleak and gray and begins to rust, peeling, decaying, deteriorating.

A bottle, washing upon the shore.

I crawl to it. Weak. Disoriented. How dare you inquire of my wants, my needs. I reach for the bottle, cursing it. I toss it back into the sea.

- Steve Mobley

In case anybody is interested, I've received a whole stack of his poetry as well.

The original copies:

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superconnected Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri May-27-05 04:15 AM
Response to Original message
1. I'd worry that he didn't write it
Edited on Fri May-27-05 04:29 AM by superconnected
because his signature is too far away. Graphology-wise I would say he completely doesn't personally own this poem.

Also his hand writing is very repressed. He appears to be visually apealing, easy to get along with, but agressive. Especially in defending his ideas - The points on the F's. (They actually bother me.) The ones on the lower letters just show me that he's someone of action. I'd watch out for anger with this man though, the points aren't showing up where you'd usually expect them with someone who is only agressive. Don't ignore him not owning these words or the points in the r's and f's.

Kelly
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superconnected Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri May-27-05 04:29 AM
Response to Reply #1
2. Ah, so this is your friends hand writing and not Steve Mobelys.
That explains it.

Watch your friend for sudden anger, even though he seems nice most of the time. He's also repressed.
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DrDebug Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri May-27-05 11:24 AM
Response to Reply #1
3. Interesting analysis
He didn't own the story, so that part of the analysis is 100% correct.

The F was strange, because it looks like a capital but in most cases it was lowercase. The same applies to the P. Also the right slanting is something which I found a bit odd and the overall neatness of the writing with hardly any mistakes and spelling errors even though he wrote and copied a lot of stories/poems as well.

Since I was the very few people to ever write to him he was very nice and friendly of course, so there was (no need) for agression. But thanks for the analysis.
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superconnected Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat May-28-05 11:58 PM
Response to Reply #3
5. hi
Edited on Sat May-28-05 11:59 PM by superconnected
the angles to the right of the f and r's are anger ticks. They show repressed anger. As in he was grudgingly writing out what he was writing to you. If it were on the left and not right it would show that he is prone to showing anger. The reason why I called outbursts anyway is because the guy is repressing his feelings and and has anger ticks. The roundness in the middle section shows he likes to get along with people plus he is visual appealing(personality-wise).

this site gives pretty good free analysis. I don't blatantly uphold by any graphology site but I have liked what I've read on this one.
http://www.handwritinguniversity.com/cgi-bin/mboard/basic/basic.cgi

I came here for poetry so I'll leave the subj alone. I know you weren't soliciting an analysis. Hope I didn't offend.

Kelly
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Droopy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri May-27-05 04:45 PM
Response to Original message
4. A very sad story
especially when you consider the circumstances under which it was written. But it is beautifully written.
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