3 out of 9
start of December
The heat pump’s extended off-cycle allowed dreaming slumber + revealed a night drive in a truck w/ improved windshield framed w/ proscenium + sculpted curtains + animated every street sign every billboard every car zooming past hit me w/ surreal sharpness lit by high-beam headlights blinding blurred eyes + head swims to stage right as I hear a pop + wheeze i struggle to hang on to the steering wheel concentrating on the tires grounding w/ the road pull off safely back stage now huddled at a flat rear wheel for a time-out gaining composure til a mild trace of the mind twisting + acclimated to this new way of deciphering through my energy i hear nothing but variations of motown sounding off through a half dead walkman the flat beat boomed inside me + lost my will + obeying the air-splitting rhythm awaking a ghost inside my chest an ancestral phantom who had danced this dance a thousand years ago this morning it pulled me away from the dead tire + into the illusive backdropped dark forest to join wantons gathered about a fire lost in a swaying trance dance i hope for nothing i fear nothing i am free epitaph written on foreheads leaping sultry sfumato + fire bits + oh then sitting dejectedly in the smoke filled air a few little sisters inside their minds of luxury glass + beamy hi-rise condos w/ running hot water + safety locks + a tv screen as large as manhattan + they saw me + oh so cooly politely rolled their eyes turned their heads to each other + pecked + clucked to keep warm re-evaluating the future every three minutes in the best of neighborhoods a heavy mist coincided w/ the fire dissolving into lucid dreaming as unexpectedly how else from up high up a tree the on-cycle fan kicked in + their flickering small hateful embarrassed eyes look up up + away along w/ the steam of water snuffed flames i think how much more interesting the dilapidated heat pump would be 100 years from this as it is easier to make an interesting picture beautiful than to make beautiful picture interesting.
This is surprisingly effective at making the reader feel cold. Then again, it is kinda cold in my neck of the woods. Relatively speaking.
ReplyDeleteHad to Google "sfumato." I love words.
I like to think of the technical word 'sfumato' as 'up in smoke'.
ReplyDeletecan rapid-fire and sfumato coexist?
ReplyDeleteAlso, sfumato, sfumato; tomato, tomato?
There's still such things as Walkman?
ReplyDeleteOnly in one's dreams from 1983....
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