Thaddeus. We look at the sky for hours

We look at the
sky for hours.
There are two suns
in the sky. One sun
has June written
on it and the other
sun says July.

The Professor makes a calendar with these two seasons. The vines and flowers from the sky cover the ground. The flowers are the size of our heads. The children kick them around. The crop fields stretch toward the sky. It’s so hot. My feet sink into the warm mud. The idea of February becomes erased from our thoughts. The Solution begins construction on new balloons. A baby is crying. More than one baby is crying. Dozens of naked babies with flowers wrapped around their throats are walking from the horizon toward us. They scream, and huge white flowers unfold from their little mouths and float like balloons up into the sky.
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Acknowledgments

Special thanks to Blake Butler, Chris Killen, James Chapman, Joe Young, Ken Baumann, Stephanie Barber, Nicholas Hughes, Jesse Ball, Ray Tintori, Priya Swaminathan, Spike Jonze, Matthew Simmons and Kathryn Regina.
A million thanks to Adam Robinson and Publishing Genius Press for first bringing this book into readers’ hands.
To my agent, Bill Clegg, whose support, passion and diligence are humbling, thank you.
To Tom Roberge and everyone at Penguin — thank you for finding me and supporting me and being a little crazy to love my book.
The community that first supported this book was the world of online literature and independent literature, and I nod in gratitude to all the early readers and supporters.
And finally, thank you to my mother, father, sister, brother, and to my wife for showing me the love and compassion that made its way into this book and my life.

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