There is a head shaped
like an ear that carries with-
in it a magic mirror that
may or may not hear, but
offers a diffident aspect
of the ocean. A woman in
a little black dress carries
it as she waits for dinner
to be served. The narrow
pyramids of sand are there
to snack on if she gets hung-
ry, fretting for her date to
arrive. Who may surprise her.
The sea is fairly flat, seems
perfect for galloping in on.
In a time of turbid
media & a weakened
economic outlook, this
display of stone tools
was put together. We
struggled with the
structure, were divided
over whether, with
the data sets that were
available, we portrayed
a goddess of resurrection
& rebirth or Fanon's dictum
that colonialism doesn't
come to an end with the
declaration of political
independence. Both
would require dark glasses
for their viewing. The one
because the brightness
blinded, the other so we
wouldn't see our shame. In
the end we compromised,
put both together, some-
what incomplete. Are pre-
paring a plaque which reads:
"Will be a lifelong pity if
having visited Tiger Hill
you did not visit Gödel."
Father is discarded, is
dying, may even be
already dead. Freud
sits at the prestige table
offering up thanks to
Sophocles, thinking
that without the help
of Oedipus Tyrannus,
he may not have even
managed to get a seat
at the table nearest to
the kitchen. Mother
has another drink, says
to her son: "Now I have
the carrot & the stick in
one." Son: "In vino veri-
tas. Fuck you, Mother."
Incorrect to talk of the
food chain as if it were
a single entity. Absence
blots people out. Others
emerge, elements of a
sense of guilt that is
sometimes offered up
as a straight radiant,
sometimes as the center-
piece of a vesica piscis,
the fish's bladder favored
by some religions. The
abyss is redolent of each
& every aspect — or
would be if someone were
there to be aware of them.
I am lost, though the street signs tell me I'm at the corner of Main & Forthright. This is a part of—uptown? downtown? out of town?—I do not recognize. There is traffic on the roadway, people walking there, bodies decorated with model cars that encase their waists, obeying the traffic directions, the lights, the speed signs. There is a separate lane for pedal cars. The sidewalks are paved with astroturf.
Everything seems in a state of flux. The model in this scenario effects a reduction in uncertainty. The result? An equivalent period will be deducted from the time it takes the house to burn. So, to escape, the bird must venture along the borders of chaos & hope neither bilboquet nor curtain falls upon it.
