a kind of revanchism (16 6. 14 wrioter repeat)

Timentime again words and winds wound out of mouths of those who were either illinformed or illconsiderate

contemptuous

               and willfully spouting sly speculations without a shred of evidence

as if the weight and conviction of their words were enough

the faith of their firm words
                               were enough

unfortunately they were to realise that some people took serious offence to their lies

and these people insisted in radical ways that lies were contemptible and bore consequences

consequences  even they hadnt foreseen

* * *

a young man at the back of the room spun a coin on an uneven folding table as he listened 
intently to the loose conversation before him

what should their answer be to these broadsides  -  a barrage of euphemisms ensued  -  though it seemed each of them were trying very hard to minimize the offence of those they spoke of

as if a liar shouldnt be called out as a liar

the young man let the spinning coin die
                                          quietly recording the heads versus tails

with talleymarks pulled in the wood top of the table with his tip of his folding knife     

he worked his knife with a stone

it was as sharp as a scalpel

he used it to skin small game and butcher its meat

its metalblade slipped easily through torqued joints

he was practised and effortless

listening  he heard one word repeated over and over   and it was that word that he too 

scored its prominence timentime again into the table top

beside the heads and tails
                             speculation

or some form or tense of the word

and with evident derision hearing the word wax in their voices sometimes spat out as if it tasted horribly 

another word began to occur in his ears in his head in concert 
                                                                   speculum

the smell emitted from an autoclave came into his nose

its unrelenting sterility and cloister

brilliant stainless steel tools emerged casting reflected light usually reserved for diamond facets

long lazy mirrorball glints cascaded like rainbowed waterfalls across the walls and ceiling quivering  on the green-black-squared tile floor

the young man inside his head visualised the duck-billed instrument quack-quack-quack 

then suddenly yawned
                         YAWN  denied of some now long-lost sleep
miserable and stutter-eyed  and miserable

he witnessed their bills shoved into the mouths of liars

he heard screams into their stretched faces telling them if they didnt recant they were going to exercise the speculums in direct regard to their specious speculations  and they imagined that ratio exaggeration  would be sufficient to break teeth and snap their jaws
                             and that 

that was going to be their choice

their choice

and their decision

* * *

he returned to the piqued voices and droning as his coin was losing velocity and beginning to wobble

it was all talk

they were good at talk

when the coin had decided  and laid flat 

he raised his folding knife in hand to be recognized

the blade catching the light flashed from the back of the room capturing their eyes

and quieted them

and in that bite of silence                                                                                                                                 

he thought better of his extreme consideration  and pulled down his exclamation point 

out of the air

 

he was recognized

he shook his head no thank you

he apologized to the panel and hall that he was no talker

the blade seemed to have cut the earnest discourse

soon the clutch was adjourned with nothing more than words ringing in certain ears and 

the parched throats of others in need of wetting 

however  elsewhere

they talked about the knife in the air at the back of the room

 

they speculated about what the young man might have had to say or meant by his oblique demonstration 

    

and he

he returned home weighted

perplexed by their impassioned words

words  it occurred to him

stacked one atop another atop another and by themselves would never suffice against 

a single action

say  a speculum in retaliation for a baseless lie or speculation

he would sleep on it

dream it through

and wake in the morning and sift the gut-strung beaded and peregrine-feathered dreamweaver above his bed for actionable remnants

in bed lying on his back  he snapped the action of his folding knife open with a flick of his wrist and quieted the blade home with the palm of his other hand over and over and over

then gently placed it on the night table

* * *

on the blackened ceiling above him

he watched the eyes of vortexes curiously muse and languid lazy swirls wash and wane

febrile and waif projections of his interior discourse and discomfit

and they were slashed and stabbed by occasional shards of light off traffic              

the ceilings shallow stucco threw blinked queer shadows and distractions quibbling at its surface

eventually to draw quiet he blindfolded himself with the heels and palms of his restless hands

they fell away when he finally slept

and that sleep

was anointed with slaughter

action

acted better than words

at every turn and around every corner

when he woke in the morning

the knife lay open

1217,  Saturday,  12  4. 14