what? nothing to see here

Nagasaki, August 9, 1945

trestle

a blackened train trestle                                                                                                     

                                         reached and writhed across Monterey like a tentacle of a colossal octopus 

deftly fingering something on the other side of the street that he couldnt see from below

its hard flesh and sinew quivered parallel to Pepper                              

                                                                                     and Pepper seemed happy  beside itself  to be at the trestles side and not roiled  and plucked   under its muscular grip

from where he stood he could hear the long steel rails strummed like guitar strings  shimmying like muted tines  though oddly hollow

biting oiled tie slivers didnt sparing their tongues  they were crude and harsh  as if rational thought had fled them and only vile contempt remained  they sniped at each other or anything that bothered in the least to casually pay them any attention

he wished he could see what fomented them

he hadnt any idea to work from to fire his imagination

directly above the heart of Monterey a tarnished greyed metal poster read 15 FT  7 IN 

it was affixed beneath the spans of forged steel plates and bleeding rusted rivets

just beneath its top plate  stenciled in aged yellow Caution paint  V E T O    the corrugated edges of cardboard were suggested by an overspray

to either side of  V E T O  were the scrubbed and obliterated remains of letters of words  illegible

perhaps a phrase or slogan  but he couldnt think of any that would be tapped or anchored by  V E T O  nearly smackdab at its middle

despite the fact that  V E T O  didnt need any legs to stand upon

                                                    

one could imagine a variety of propositions or laws that should have been vetoed over the tumultuous political warfaring of his  or anyones lifetime

philosophies conspiring  a breath away from war  if it werent for soiling their manicured nails  mussing their coiffured hair  fine clothing  and the very pleasant scent they wore to hide their yellow lily-liveredness

they werent the kind of men who had calluses or grimy nails  or considered sweat outside the conclave of their gyms

if they had luggage or burdens  someone else was assigned to carry or care for them


they imagined themselves brilliant lamps that lit the way  illumined the darkness and black corners   superiorly ground glass lens to focus on or to deflate or scald problems   or transfix and peer through things to their very core

Become transcendental

 

NO   they themselves were above tawdry physical violence                   

                                                                                                but they could order it

like ordering a steak medium-well(he wouldnt spoil good meat) cream for their coffee  the crust cut from their bread

they could order it

because they wouldnt see it 

           

1020-ish,  Thursday  Hiroshima Day,  6  8. 15

 0933,  Saturday,  8  8. 15

bad habit

He had a bad habit of conferring himself  his health and wherewithal onto everyone around him

                                                                                                     a randy Johnny Appleseed run amuck

many beers

             later a bottle of good whisky between them  they sat talking before a fire ring on a night anointed by the approaching blue moon

then late  all the problems of the World solved it was time to call it a night

                                                                               and he did

he told them that he would grab up the three lawn chairs

he also grabbed the empty bottle of whisky and his emptied beer bottle

then this morning urinating noisily he looked out of the screened window down onto the clumpy gray ash cotained in the fire ring

         before it on the raked ground he saw their empty glasses 

 

she had used the kids 80s Welch's painted jelly jars  an orange Tyrannosaur and its buddy a blue Brontosaur

they stared up at him from exactly where they had left them

he made coffee

they sat around the yellow linoleum and chrome kitchen table and drank it together

he asked  Were you two rocked last night or did you think I was also going to grab up your glasses when we came in

My hands were obviously full

YES like a choir  We were really rocked

I didnt know that I thought you picked up your glasses when I grabbed the chairs

We didnt

Plainly Theyre still out there

Could have sworn we did

No

Justsaying

Dontsay

Well  we were rocked

I didnt know that

You werent

I wasnt

Huh

Im sorry I didnt recognise you were

Because you werent

Because I didnt think we drank that much We had everything over seven hours

Well   We  Were  Rocked

Sorry I apologise   The conversations were cogent 

Rocked

he had to suppose Inians and Englishmen didnt have the tolerance of a Chicago-born polack

he did have a bad habit

1808,  Thursday,  30  7. 15  

storyteller

She winced  groaned deeply

pain

          unremitting

she held her eyes shut tight

tears that tried to seep between her eyelids were slivered and staunched

cinched between her luxuriant eyelashes

Tellmeastory  she gasped

Tell meastory

she knew he was there

he wouldnt be anywhere else

A story  he said carefully  trying not  to betray his emotions   hanging by the thinnest thread

Its difficult love

No  more    difficult she gasped   thanbeing    in  here

No

A story

Yes  storyteller

You    al ways      hava    story     to  tell

she groaned                                                                                                                                           

It  is    one   ofthe  reasons           I   love         you

I   want  tahear      your  voice

he wanted to hear hers again  without the pain  hear her laughter  see her delicious smile on her face

erase the tortured pale expressions that were conquering her countenance  erasing her beauty  contorting it into a horrible  twisted mask

Please   Iwanna     hear   your           voice

You  do not know  how    it   comforts me

Tell    me  a special       story

Only  for  me

he began  . . .

1217,  Friday, 31 7. 15  a blue moon tonight 

 (originally Moanday, 10  3. 08)