"Trail System"

Philip Pinch, a gifted writer and good friend of mine, has one of his short works featured in a recent issue of "Conjunctions," Bard College's literary journal. If you have ten minutes to read "Trail System," I highly recommend it. The piece is satirical, but Philip's sensitivity shines through.

I've included the first section below, to whet your appetite.

"I flush out a bird. It hops along a branch and swivels its head to better accuse me, lash me with its chattery invective, the user says when he first enters Trail System. This bird is just one of a nearly infinite number of entry-level presentations.

Trail System as it occurs on a mountain range markets trails to several grades of consumer. Target audiences are: (1) older couples, (2) older isolated singles, (3) vigorous young couples or singles, (4) loafer young (“hopeful dieter”) couples or singles, or (5) general family.

The above target audiences converge on their assigned trail. Users rely upon the trail to provide them respectively relevant presentations they can’t find anywhere else; then they plumb them for meaning. If a user stumbles, a squirrel watches, rolling and chipping an acorn in its teeth, awaiting user interpretation."