Independent Survey by Alan Michael Parker

Third place in the first Lunate 500 competition

“This flash reminded me of Padgett Powell's The Interrogative Mood, a novel entirely in questions. There's a sweetness and longing to this, captured in a very small space.”

Helen McClory (judge)

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If you are hearing this for the first time, press 3 now. If not, simply wait.

Press * 9 now.

At any time in this survey, press 4.

If you want a really good sandwich, press 7. Press 2 for tuna.

If you were to have dinner with anyone, why not with me?

If you were a different person and I were a different person, who would have been my mom?

Can you feel love without your body?

To picture yourself having a cool cocktail with a new friend, press 3, 1.

If stanza eight of every scripture were the secret answer, why didn’t the Buddha say so? Press 6 and then press the # sign for Maybe he did.

Press 9 for a prize.

If longing is enough, press 2, 2, 3 for I’m over here. Press 2 again, and then press 4.

Keep pressing 7.

Press 8, 2, 8, 5, for I remember you, I would love to reconnect, what have you been doing?

To access your childhood now, press 3, 1.

To eliminate every single invisible negativity wave in the galaxy, press 3, 1.

Press 3, 1 to call this survey taker’s ex-.

To return to living in the present, press 3, 1.

To stay until breakfast, press 7, 7.

Press 3, 1 to sign up for consciousness beyond technology.

Press 4 to live a different way.