pinching his nose between his
thumb and forefinger he exhaled letting go and blew sharp bursts
resonate piqued sounds but not too hard
not as if he sought to empty his
nose into either of the handkerchiefs he kept in the back pockets of his
jeans(handkerchiefs he tantalised and confounded Minneapolis homosexuals unintentionally
with who tried to decode their meaning* when they had no meaning other than he really
liked big colourful handkerchiefs)
he walked in the open air under a
crisp blue sky upstart salt breezes coming in off the ocean like wet-ended
towels snapped in gym class
he wrinkled his nose
asked himself absently Why am I smelling
urine bouts of urine like the smell that emanates out of either end
of Bubble
Gum alley
he was concerned
he pursued his curiosity and read
medical tracts accounts of certain smells which indeed were associated with
disease
however they were usually detailed
as persistent smells
not the occasional whiff he
caught Here
then There
the smell of ammonia was
associated with kidney disease
the sufferer smelling it
this scent of warm urine the
smell of ammonia hed experienced in the past
though it had nothing to do with
ailments
rather it concurred with dinner
as a boy arriving home for lunchtime
from school he found his mother preparing that evenings dinner
occasionally she was literally boiling
the piss out of beef kidneys in an open pot or dutch oven on top the stove
no one who was part of an
immigrant family would have considered it untoward or awkward that he salivated
anticipating their dinner of kidneys in a creamy horseradish sauce over
fresh-made egg noodles
but This wasnt That
This smell was an occasional leak
that daubed his olfactory like a broken capsule of smelling salts woven inside
their sleek clinical wraps
nasal suppositories guaranteed to
capture your imagination every bit and inch as much as anal suppositories
so it was neither
Here
There
This
nor
That
Jesus
he felt like a forlorn bug swirling
on the fast water at the edge of a drains vortex whipping past again and again
the golden ring past those thoughts assembling and hinting that he should know
why he smelled urine
it antagonised him
because he knew the answer would
be its simplest reason
and him not knowing suggested he either wasnt simple enough or was too developed and his common sense a wreckage and wasting behind him
Im done he admitted
it was a mystery to him
coming into his parents house in
the foyer he took his sloughy Alaskan beanie off and laid it on the seat of the
hall stand
if someone entered their home and did not remove their hat they took insult
it suggested overt indiscretion and that the misanthrope was apparently raised poorly
in their house they were disinclined to suffer anyones lack of courtesy or civility it was not tolerated or allowed fallow
in their house they were disinclined to suffer anyones lack of courtesy or civility it was not tolerated or allowed fallow
Hello Where is everyone he cried as he walked towards the rear of the house where the kitchen was it was the common room where family had always cloistered and communed in
food and family and conversation
there wasnt a better place to commingle
there they were surrounded by an
ample larder pantry and a refrigerator/freezer a bounty of
refreshments and either foodstuff or beverages were diuretics
that produced their casual speak of little or no consequence or bombastic visceral arguments
Hello a distant chorus greeted him from the rear of the house
as his footfall faded the foyer became deathly still
out of the fold in his beanie
emerged a shy jetblack beetle a darkling or pinacate beetle or better known
stinkbug for its wellknown malodorous secretion
a stink
of ammonia
moving awkwardly it tumbled off
the fabricked seat of the hall stand and bounced soundlessly on the tiled floor
soundlessly to human hearing
yet not so soundless to opportunistic
mammalian hearing
the darkling responded to the
approaching skitter of nails huffing pink nose and whiskers by bending deep at
its forelegs headstanding raising its abdomen high its scent gland readied to
spurt
the mouse as a matter of fact clobbered
it on its mandible and sent it spinning toppling into the deep pile of
livingroom carpet
there it jammed its behind into
the pile and ate it quickly head first with scarcely any stench emitted
uninitiated
someone might conclude the mouse had a better meal that evening it was less offensive than when the family enjoyed their occasional beef kidneys and noodles
1111, Friday,
10 6. 16
* Gay Hanky Codes: https://user.xmission.com/~trevin/hanky.html
