Wednesday 18 August 2010

Cream of Stonciousness


In this empty room, I am virtually alone. In the cybernetic gloom, I digitally atone. In the vestigial universe of wires and relays. Here I slip into nothing much at all. I have nothing to say, a pencil for my thoughts, and a sharp tongue for more immediate words.

This is cream of stonciousness writing, some might say automatic. Long live Uncle Marcel, dear old Georgio and Max, the Birdman. How I miss their antics. It was like this: Max and his friend Rene were in New York. For a dare, I dare say. The cloud ceiling was low and the sky clung to the scrapers. Dusk was coming in. Planes went slipping wild across the sky that remained, king-konging off the Empire State and the Chrysler Buildings. Debris seemed to percolate down, in a kind of slow motion, toward street level. Credibility Street. And the truth is it never reached there. Who can say what the answer was to that? A ancient biplane, careening into an office (it could happen). The giant monkey, tight-fisted with his Fay Wray, her, screaming like the devil. A beautiful pair of lungs for a lady. (That's no lady that was my co-star). And the twisting wreckage of fuselage? This, striking the glass barrier? No barrier at all. The real carnage: the plane in the administrative concourse. (It did happen) Here and there the flying corps fly past, curious. And Kong, the displaced beast to end all displaced beasts, clung to the flagpole at the top of the Empire State and took his medicine. They say it was lead poisoning that got him in the end. After falling all those tall storeys, it was the ground broke his fall. His neck? Brass, it was not. Broken, most likely, like his heart. Tough at the top. Even tougher at the bottom. It could only happen in Hollywood. 

In the empty room
Virtually alone in cybernetic gloom,
In a vestigial universe of wires and relays,
I slip into nothing at all.
I had nothing to say:
A pencil for my thoughts,
A rough instrument for recording
The lighter moments;
A sharp tongue to twist around the words
Those blunt and dull and spoken words.

Alone the walls take time,
Written under yellow light,
And waste it for the approaching night.

© BH 2001

I wrote this in 2001. I think words settle a bit over time and become more readable. Luckily the letters stay in the same order.

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