The Beautiful/Forbidden Fruit

Home again, home again. It's been several long months, yet in my almost immediate return I realized the problems shrouded in the shadowy corners of my small resort town. It is almost comical, our town takes the nickname "The Beautiful." While that in itself is not particularly humorous, it is completely and utterly ironic just how backwards a statement it makes.

Our town is like the class bitch. Everybody knows she is hot. Everybody wants a piece of her real estate. However, what she hides best is that she has a lot of problems and insecurities underneath that cosmetically sound, flawless face.

I guess, though I cannot attest to it, that many small towns function in such ways. Racial intolerance, crooked cops and powerful families controlling the politics in their favor. It has all the makings of a shitty novel, yet I aspire to write one exploiting (while changing the names to protect the innocent, of course!) the real roots of what keeps my town from being "The One"

It's an undertaking, and a risky one at that. I'll likely offend many people, but I'm going to chalk that up to the fact that people don't like when their skeletons get dug up. There are certainly focal points of the writing I'm going to do on the subject, a particular prosecuting attorney, some of the school board and related officials, etc.

Maybe I'm just being bitter. In fact, it is completely possible that none of you will ever read it. Not for a lack of my completing it, but rather because a lot of times I write to solve my own problems. It allows me to narrate objectively and, therefore, see my attacks and defenses in a more systematic and comprehensible manner--unclouded by emotions.

It reminds me of a phrase I've been running across over and over the last few days: "This is not for you." I've seen it on several blogs, posts, and even grafittid on the side of a building. That is, who am I writing for? I have the inspiration finally, but if not for you, the reader, and not for me, the author, then who? It is very likely that this blog is a conglomeration of my efforts to talk to you, help myself and maybe something further than that. It is healthy to write everyday.

So now, for putting up with my, what the Internet nerds call a WoT (Wall-of-Text), let me provide you with something creative for your reading pleasure.

Forbidden Fruit
By Trey Campbell

How do I end up in places like this?
Where the normal is not, that's where I am
And I'm tempted down into the abyss
Of temptation's touch, to which I condemn
My forbidden fruit, oh my secret gem
You bring me trouble, yet I still come near
Lured by the representational femme
While I walk closer, I surely don't fear
That in my heart of hearts I may hold you so dear.