Brass And Swan
Simple cartoon shadows of waterlogged grass around the base of every tree; reanimated dog shit ready for another karmic go-around; half-demolished bargain stores like nuclear ruins squatting in the damaged clay. Everything is melting.
They razed a building that stood on the hilltop above my house, and I don’t much mind. They will replace it with a sort of elaborate warehouse for the keeping of old people. A sadness repository; a large quantity of forgetful.
Since it is not April I cannot quote T.S. Eliot and besides I am in no mood. I will read to you a headline I read yesterday instead. Close your eyes.
“Teens Charged In Killing Of Two Mute Swans“
Almost poetry, stamping and coughing in the cold, drunk, blunt fingers around the long neck, hurry up, it’s taking too long, shallow chokes puffing in the frozen air, get a branch, hurry up it’s Taking too Long, eye like a dot of jelly, this way and that, bash it in, steaming there on the ice, and why?
I don’t know. Things like this happen all the time. “Mute Swan” is a beautiful term. Beautiful things are noticed and smashed, or die of observation.
I’ve had dreams of brass caves that run for miles underground. I am lost in them but do not mind, and I become a connoisseur of their forms and textures. As I run my hands along the polished walls, it becomes progressively dim. Soon it is dark; my eyelids are left with the memory of brass-coloured lights, dancing in nothingness.
If I woke up from this year, I wonder if I’d remember it?
hey joe
i just wanted to say hello.
and where are these evil teens from? on oprah a year ago she talked about this town in the US where teens were suffocating themselves just enough so that they could feel high. … anyway, that’s my contribution of dark news for the day lol. have a good weekend
ku
March 16, 2007 at 2:34 pm
brass caves sound fascinating…
andrea
March 19, 2007 at 6:46 am
Brass caves are pretty cool, but did you see Bob Barker give the finger and then fight some college students like I observed in my subconscious?
The Price was wrong apparently… bitch.
Also, what sort of people are the teens of today. Back in our day they were killing seagulls, who are the avian equivalent of rats. Now swans? The inspiration for a ride that gives many heartland folk their first sexual experence? I tell ya, I would be afraid to be a Pereguin Falcon or an Eagle right now because that is who is going down next.
dgtomlinson
March 21, 2007 at 12:11 am
I like this one Joe. Close your eyes, we’re about to massacre some mute swans. Waterloo campus is abound with Canadian Geese, which are avian abominations. Don’t try to kill one though, they will fuck you up.
Comrade Bellski
March 28, 2007 at 2:40 pm
Time for another installment Joe!
Don’t leave me hanging!
R Black
March 28, 2007 at 11:07 pm