There was a dream I had called Jefferson
And it used to be the county seat it

Used to be a railroad town,
Used to be bustling, enlivened,
But the trains, well, the trains . . .
What can you say?
Grass has grown thick over the railroad tracks
And here now bodies get discarded,
bottles broke,
and reputations tarnished.

The Flim-Flammers,
The Jim-Jammers,
The Swim-Swammers,
The Him-Hammers,
The Dim-Dammers,
The Rim-Rammers,
The Yim-Yammers,
The Zim-Zammers,
And then you and me, Old Joy. . .

Thusly our world is made.


(Thank you for the gift, Kelly Reichardt.)

The Turkey Prop Still #5

The Turkey Before the World Turned
"Those were simpler, more complicated times." -- Captain Howl

The Turkey Production Artifact #55
Scanned page from one of the The Turkey's journals

"And a Disappearance of Some"

Proposed Tag-Lines for The Turkey
A film by Justin Stone
As compiled by Freckle and Sons Media Consultants
* He is afraid.
* Witness the clumsy hand of justice.
* Blind luck without the luck.
* Don't stare up into the rain.
* How's the dangle in your chest?
* That's not a gobbler.
* One of life's most terrible miracles.
* You'll want to wear a mask.
* All beady-eyed and waddling.
* Feed the dumb beast.
* Season's in.
* There's a bone in the breast.
* Get your tail-feathers in a knot.
* It gets caught in the throat.
* Who else is going to do nothing?
* Beware the coming dawn.
* Remember how good it used to taste.
* Gaggle down.
* Shit where you eat.
* Hunt this.
* This city needs stuffing and dressing.
* Some birds weren't meant to fly.
* Give no thanks this season.
* How fowl.
* Not all plumage is brilliant.
* To materialize in a fog at sunrise.
* Save the neck for me, Clark.
* The city needs a savior. But this guy will do.
* While you're asleep at 4 a.m. he's doubled up in pain.
* Just the way everybody in this city walks around so confident and charmed-like it makes him sick.

He keeps a poor watch over the city.
He falls down, sleeps in shadows.
He will forget your birth-day.
He is long underemployed.
His hands shake.
He is. . .

The Turkey

A film by Justin Stone
In theatres Aztec Summer 2012


Hear the soft gackle at dawn and prepare to get sweaty.

what you know that you don't know--
your eyes tell me everything of you, she says,
and everything of the years since last we met,
minus the tedium of details.
i have dreamt our meeting thus, i say,
and to say nothing is the greatest relief.
. . .
. . .
what you know that you don't know.
when you live there is poetry in your face,
but not everybody can read poetry,
and not all poems are read.

consider the roof beam raised high, carpenter.

Lindsay and Justin Stone
Southern California, 1996
Photograph by Zach Passero