he was anxious for a soak(like a
junky for their next fix never thinking it could possibly be a hot shot a
perverse joke to appease and livenup a hardened streetcorner pusher they may or
may not have scored)
he soaked in hot water in an
oversized clawfoot bathtub that he found and shipped west out of a Midwestern
farmhouse scheduled to be razed
it must have suffered a share
of young children drowning
at
six foot bending his knees slightly he easily immersed himself
underwater
but he knew how to swim
he had the cast iron tub refinished
coloured it an appealing scarlet red
at night particularly under candlelight it turned purple and when the deep water was
still it reflected the ceiling above and other things he wasnt
keen on seeing
he soaked
head submerged chin mouth and nose like a snorkel
and
wend his way through his jumbled spasmodic thoughts the array of problems that
perplexed him which he illumined setting blazing krieg lights on them bleaching
out any hope of refuge for niggling shadows or accessories who wanted to interfere with or infect his thinking
cutting them to the quick
if the forefront of his therapy didnt
assuage his thoughts troubles or musings then what came to him what he heard were the rantings of petty mermaids whales singing like aliens obliviously
and indifferent to the mermaids whines
the erotic scolding and encouragement the rutting sounds of narwhals
the
seduction of Sirens
but when their vocalisations
became too intense or provocative he disengaged he pushed himself up by his
feet to either side of the overflow under the spigot
it was a practised haste that removed
his ears from their plaintive or suddenly urgent voices
on occasions despite utter
Reason he was struck then saddened that he couldnt talk to Odysseus and examine the
abrasions and ropeburns on his flesh from being lashed to the mast of his ship
or as he hoped there werent any and Odysseus had resisted the Sirens despite the
labor Homers text exacted as if Man was a
slave to his pleasures and desires and could not bear them without submitting to
them
wretched Weaklings
twinned to the Odysseus occasions there were those other things he wasnt keen on seeing who displaced and unhinged themselves from the capture and confines of simple mirrors that hung in houses were carried in compacts and obscene in freakshow funhouses
things that wore the caricatured
skins of creatures who innocently beheld themselves in them and did not
understand the thinnest of veils between their earthly presence and reality and
the mockery the disdain and detest of those things
monsters that no one guessed
at
the gruesome murderers who always
surprised their neighbors
Infections
who watched from the other
side of the silver
he was freakish about his glass
he overhung them with fabric cloaked them minimised their access to him
he took solace seeing them in the deep hot water
in a medium they couldnt confound
and would
admit that if he couldnt unsee them
then at least they swam and swirled helplessly
unsubstantial phantoms
high winds scouring a blue sky
1722, Friday,
27 5. 16
1236, Sunday, 29 5.
16
