39 Boys on Ground

By Victor David Sandiego

With these 39 interwoven snapshots, the reader enters the darkly humorous, insightful, surreal and brutally honest worlds of boys as they climb from the hollows of their youth into the world of men. On their way to an imperfect redemption, and with a determined spirit of compassion, these 39 boys and those who at times narrate their stories for them must pass through the formidable shadows of deprivation and war with only an intensely lyrical and allegorical lamp to light the way.

Join the journey and discover how these travelers come to grips not only with their biological fathers, but with their larger and more intangible societal family members who entice them with the riches and sanctioned norms of our institutions and customs.

39 Boys On Ground is part one of the Transformations Pentology. The five volumes explore and commemorate a journey that begins with physical deprivation in Africa and continues in an expanding sphere that passes through modern life in the Americas into a reawakened mysticism. In many ways, the journey is the author’s own, but the stories are told from a wide variety of perspectives and circumstance.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Victor David Sandiego
• Release date: Feb 2, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301660537

Victor David Sandiego

Victor David Sandiego lives in the high desert of central México where he walks the cities and mountains, plays drums with jazz combos and in musical / poetry collaborations, writes, and studies. His work appears in various journals and on public radio.

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39 Boys on Ground

Victor David Sandiego

Copyright 2007 Victor David Sandiego

Smashwords Edition

VictorDavid.com

Cover photograph by Marc Ryckaert

Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported (CC BY 3.0)

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Table of Contents

Introduction

Part 1 – Telescope Power

Part 2 – In Search of Gorgandú

Part 3 – Elephant Shadow

Afterword

About the Author

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Introduction

Let him who seeks not cease to seek until he finds. And when he finds he will be troubled. When he has been troubled he will marvel.

The Gospel According to Thomas

Daddy? Will you love me if I kill some boys for you? Put my finger on the trigger.

Will you forgive me for wrecking the Buick if I crawl on elbows and knees through the same jungle as you?

I lied about the baseball bat. You knew that. Put my finger on the trigger.

Daddy, please. I’ll pull the pin on other sons rising from daddy shadow, running from daddy wrath, put my finger on the button, wired to explosive roads.

We are boys climbing from the hollows of our youth to manhood. We’ll leave behind some speckled flags and low bugle notes for you, Daddy.

Telescope Power

1. Lunch menu is missing

Look at me: a sack of weak and wobbly drought-dried skin and bones on the ground with my hands to the African wind.

I don’t know another world but someday I hope to grow and show you I can think beyond my shrunken gut. I’ll be an artist painting life with words or brushes – or maybe on a tyrant-rage with blood on