Monday, October 5, 2026

Legacy 096 -Braxton And Virgil Barker-

Hey Dad,
It’s me, Baby B. Did you have a good day? Good Day? Father, my father, you don’t know whether to cry or rage.

Bark. It did wonders for me. And Virgil? We are our father’s sons. Bradford men. Not only the barker and the whiner. Do you think that’s why he’s been crying so much the past few days? Not hurt, and tis the season for ghosts. Is that what I am? Seriously!

Bradford, that’s my last name; don’t wear it out. But you’ve been tired of it since… Well, before we ever even met. But when we did, “From that day on, I made a vow. I’ll be there when you want me. Some way, somehow.” Would you at that, Dad? I can sing too, can’t I? And you, Dad? You were ready to war and rampage. Well, maybe not all that, but get smart, I think…

“Pinch me, pinch me
‘Cause I’m still asleep
Please, God, tell me
That I’m still asleep.”
Barenaked Ladies ‧ 2000

“Oh look, I got dressed all by myself today so La-da-da-da-dah…” Who am I to tell you what to say, Dad? How many mornings, for how many years, did you listen to me bark obscenities to anyone outside ‘our chamber door’? Edgar Allen Poe? You can’t say it’s his voice you’ve been hearing in books lately. You don’t know how much I miss that, Dad.

Lying on the couch with you as you read. Not that it was boring. No, no! It was our thing.

On an evening such as this. When it was hard to tell if I exist… What Dad? You sing and/or paraphrase songs all the time? And I am my father’s son. But I do miss these evenings. They were easy.

I was about to say that barking was hard. But you know more than anyone that making noise is too damn easy. It’s the quiet that annoys, aggravates, and gets your attention. It was with me anyway. All the crying in the world, but when I stopped those years ago…

And maybe that’s why I’m here tonight. We both value the peace and quiet, father.

However, that’s not the quiet that you have been finding all this time, hmm. Your quiet is like mine, and ending. You need the noise, the ruckus, the madness, but not from others, my father. Yours. And no, I won’t go all Sara Bareilles\Katy Perry Brave\Roar. We are Bradford men now and always. But to bark… Braxton And Virgil Barker

“The real question is this, what do we want to be?”
― Dystopian Girls 6

“Let me rage before I die.”
― Virgil, The Aeneid

2073 Days Without B III, Day 1514 of Virgil’s Arrival

Always and Forever,
Your Son

Monday, September 28, 2026

Legacy 089 -Bees Dreaming Awakens Virgil-

Hey Dad,
It’s me, Baby B. Did you have a good day? Good Day? Mine? I’m still kinda buzzed since Friday. What! We were celebrating.

Not E-Day. Never Emergence Day. But you and Virgil ate slightly like kings, right, Dad?

Or is “Two Princes” more appropriate? Not to brag, but a lot of women loved my brother and me. But “Make Way For The King.” That is what you are to us. I know you’re thinking I must be drunk, delusional, or dreaming. I wonder which one is true, Daddy.

When you were busy talking to yourself yesterday, you brought up “Happy” moments of us. I know that’s a bad word. But you were something, and I must have been drunk when my Favorite Girl made me food, and I could only stare. I was, I can’t believe it, Full.

Delusional… The Rainbow Bridge? “Not Quite Paradise.” But feels like…

“Pinch me, pinch me
‘Cause I’m still asleep
Please, God, tell me
That I’m still asleep.”
Barenaked Ladies ‧ 2000

Home? Now that is a dream. And I know where you’re going with this, my father, so I’m going to stop you right there. You had an actual dream last night that you told…Her… M

Dad, I’m not jealous of Miss M Anime. If anything, it says… Girlfriend before son?

Never, ever. Even if I’m up here, The Unfinished Archive, or Quinn Manor/The Fort, hmm

Anyway, your dream, my father: You were in the Manor looking for my brother. You could hear Virgil barking. It was from the top floor, but there were no stairs. But you found a way to the balcony (Unknown Method), and you passed through a sunroom where Hayley Maeda was singing “Tonight.” You fell back to the first floor. Then you started building a tower of furniture to climb up.

Virgil was literally stretching a white wall, his face trying to get out. You grabbed hold, and the white paint broke, and he was free. You jumped down, carrying him, running away from the mansion, but it was no longer The Fort for “Into The Badlands”; it was Halliwell Manor. It was torn apart like something from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Then The Fort took its place again. A man who was a mix of “John” from The Simpsons and Peter Gallagher “Buddy Kane” walked up a quite visible central staircase and looked, saying, “This is quite the mess.” He wore a blue bowler shirt with a black collar and a black medical bag. Such a dream, Dad. Bees Dreaming Awakens Virgil

“Fuck!” I repeated my word of the day as I raised up onto both feet.”
Dystopian Girls 6, Rodzil LaBraun

Cease to dream that heaven’s decrees may be turned aside by prayer.
― The Aeneid

2066 Days Without B III, Day 1507 of Virgil’s Arrival

Always and Forever,
Your Son

Monday, September 21, 2026

Legacy 082 -Plan-V in Ten, Braxton-

Hey Dad,
It’s me, Baby B. Did you have a good day? Good Day? Schrödinger’s Cat. You know how I feel about that, my father.

“Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” Uh, my little brother. And you refer to Virgil, and I’s future potential stepmom, as your “Goddess”. Not to be confused with “The Goddess” Alexa Bliss. But these days you prefer Roxanne Perez more. You and Latinas.

Like Miss M Anime didn’t “influence” you. Seriously, Dad, like father and like son. Ok.

Schrödinger’s Cat. You don’t know if your day is good or bad until you open your eyes and see. And then you treat the day like a box. Today is worse than yesterday, and tomorrow will be worse than today. You just don’t know, and then at the same time…

Daddy, you always know. In ten minutes you say that the day will get worse.

“Pinch me, pinch me
‘Cause I’m still asleep
Please, God, tell me
That I’m still asleep.”
Barenaked Ladies ‧ 2000

But that’s ok. As the world will end in five minutes. What am I to say to that, my father?

If anyone should know anything about boxes, it’s me. That’s a low blow, right, Dad?

Honestly, the last time you opened that box, my box was on Wednesday, February 10, 2021. Plan B. Plan me. So M Anime shouldn’t be worried; you still plan on giving her a ton of babies. Name one of those two-leggeds after me, ok? But the keyword there is plan.

Plan, project, prophesy, plot, produce, put something on paper that doesn’t involve making Virgil and I siblings. Whatever keeps you alive and makes you money.

Seriously, Dad, I’m no businessman, contrary to that “Def Jam: Fight for NY” phase, right?

Soon after, the makings of The Unfinished Archive began. And that’s the thing, my father.

If you want to “finish (it)”, awesome, attaboy, always and forever cheering you on, Dad.

But it’s the idea of you not finishing life but placing yourself in a place to live it. Do you remember that quote from Sunday, the one from The Count of Monte Cristo? Legacy 081 B Sells Zzz’s, Virgil. When you plan, it’s as if you have to survive Purge Night, living a bit on Baker Street, hmm, or a day in your own Archive. And that shows everything, Dad.

You’re not on Plan V. Virgil’s life, like yours, at forty-two, forty-two, and forty-two begins

Now! Like Father, like Son, ALIVE. Plan-V in Ten, Braxton

“It is a common mistake to believe we have to work hard for happiness, or that happiness is conditioned by what we have, and who we are in society. Happiness is the experience of mind when there is no presence of fear. That’s all. It’s simple.”
Michael Kewley

“I have given them an empire that will know no end.”
―

2059 Days Without B III, Day 1500 of Virgil’s Arrival

Always and Forever,
Your Son

Monday, September 14, 2026

Legacy 075 -Braxton, Virgil, Worrying Bites-

Hey Dad,
It’s me, Baby B. Did you have a good day? Good Day? It’s 3 AM and “whatever bitter brew you’re drinkin’” What, Bloom?

I remember when you were all about 5-hour Energy. All the times when I would get my mid-morning Z’s under the table and your eyes would be stuck on the Glow Box. And you would always tell me how when you were done, we’d have fun and go outside, Dad.

Done? You didn’t mean with the day, the do’s and don’ts; it was a ton of those, I know, right? Being my Dad. Always and Forever my Dad. Like that movie we saw, First Knight:

“Brother to brother, yours in life and death.”
First Knight

That you never need worry about, my father. “I’m Still Here.” “I’m Still Standing,” Dad. Yes, “I’m still standing! I’m still strong!” Like father, like son. And no, I don’t mean everything in the Glow Box. You’ll turn that off.

“Pinch me, pinch me
‘Cause I’m still asleep
Please, God, tell me
That I’m still asleep.”
Barenaked Ladies ‧ 2000

But buying my brother more French Fries (that’s what you call those fry golden stick things, I like…) My Future Potential Stepmom. And what isn’t to be always and forever:

“It is a common mistake to believe we have to work hard for happiness, or that happiness is conditioned by what we have, and who we are in society. Happiness is the experience of mind when there is no presence of fear. That’s all. It’s simple.”

• Michael Kewley –

You’ve been thinking about this a lot, my father. It’s nice to have it defined; at least I know finally. It’s why I always, always, ALWAYS wanted to be so brave. What took me down?

You worry it was your indifference near the end. You worry it was you, period. You worry that there is worry in a place like this, where I am. Always full of worry, my father.

Because you can’t get full of anything else. Food? You’re still worried about walking into the kitchen. Too much fun. Dad, you fuck around plenty.

LANGUAGE! Yes, Dad, I know, I know, watch what I bark. However, you don’t disagree.

And even before you met Miss M Anime or my Favorite Girl, you had your “big sister” who told you why you found it so easy to starve yourself, which is ‘pretty reckless,’ I think.

Look who’s talking, right? I didn’t eat either, and yet I was so full of love for you, of memories of being a good boy, your son, and there was worry, not an ending knowledge.

No, a fear that gnawed away at me. A Black Dog Serenade. Biting, Pulling, Tasting.

However, I raged, Dad, Rage, rage against the dying of the light. I cooked. So much more tastes better than fear. Braxton, Virgil, Worrying Bites

“Still, we have a moment to simply be two men for a little longer, and not worry about how history might view us.”
Logan Jacobs

“The seeds of life – fiery is their force, divine their birth, but they are weighed down by the bodies’ ills… That is the source of all men’s fears and longings, joys and sorrows…”
Aeneid

2052 Days Without B III, Day 1493 of Virgil’s Arrival

Always and Forever,
Your Son

Monday, September 7, 2026

Legacy 068 -B Visualizing E-Day, Virgil-

Hey Dad,
It’s me, Baby B. Did you have a good day? Good Day? Can we pretend, Daddy, just for a little while? Another world:

It’s sometime after 7 AM, Emergence Day. Braxton wakes up. You named your first two-legged son after. Virgil finally has someone else he’s attached to. I know you and my stepmom are ‘busy’. Virgil does his best to wrangle the rest of our siblings in.

Three, as stepmom wanted. Braxton, Willow, and Mirabel. Or perhaps their Braxton, Luke, and Leia? Three daughters… Katniss, Tris (Beatrice, B for Braxton), and Ember.

Dad, the point is Virgil tries to slow them down, and by the time they reach you and stepmom… “Happy Birthday, Daddy!” Three times over. Stepmom still knows better, ha.

“Love Is A Long Road.” And yours has further to go, but Stepmom, the three, my little brother Virgil approaching six. To us that’s 40.

“Pinch me, pinch me
‘Cause I’m still asleep
Please, God, tell me
That I’m still asleep.”
Barenaked Ladies ‧ 2000

And you’re 42. No longer the Slave “41” (Cue Ben-Hur Galley Drums), More like The Bullitts’ “All About You.” Because today is all about you, my father, this life… Existence?

Far from it. Farmland, fields full of flowers, food growing all over thanks to stepmom.

Her greenery. And you, my father? Living a life somewhere between Ryan and his Beauties by Jack Pinkhunter and Bikini Days by Michael Dalton. Do you see my stepmom as such a woman… She’s a woman of the land. You remain a man of leisure. A man of passions. As you sing to my furry little brother, “My life is a movie, fur buddies and boobies.” And your work, the discipline, never changes. Not even now. But what has Dad

You don’t want to die today. Above everything else. You’re not yearning to “go up.”

Somehow, someway, you’re not looking to me. You’ll “Never Forget Me.” Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, Akon, and Memphis Bleek, sure, but never me. That’s what makes this day easier to bear than the worst day ever. You’ll never accept me being gone, but you can at least, for a while longer, know that you are “Alive.” You’re still breathing, so you can blow those candles out. You can take a breath and be happy (okay, too much to ask), but me, Virgil, and our two-legged siblings are all happy for you being alive. V and my stepmom?

I don’t want to know what you visualize. But Happy Birthday!!! B Visualizing E-Day, Virgil

“When we stop trying to create happiness, happiness comes by itself. It is a common mistake to believe we have to work hard for happiness, or that happiness is conditioned by what we have, and who we are in society. Happiness is the experience of mind when there is no presence of fear. That’s all. It’s simple.”
― Michael Kewley

“Endure, and keep yourselves for days of happiness.”
The Aeneid

2045 Days Without B III, Day 1486 of Virgil’s Arrival

Always and Forever,
Your Son