WE could see that we were moving past several rooms where the patients were also moving around, going in and out of their rooms. Many of the old ones were falling asleep, but a few more were talking to their nurses as they went along. When we passed their rooms, they would say something in that low, lost manner that only the demented can ever manage. It was very disconcerting to think of all these people wandering around in the hallway like this. It was as though the hospital was a bad dream, or a village in the Carpathian mountains, or like the field of a small town where the old women doze in their rows.

It’s once a life time and same as it ever was.

We were walking up the stairs when I realized that Valerie was holding my arm. “Is something wrong?” I asked.

“Nothing.”

We came into a new and smaller room, and Miss Norris was in the chair by the window, eating toast from a tattered and spotted plate. “Hello, Annie,” she said to me, closing the book on her lap and folding her hands on her lap.

“Hello, Miss Norris,” I said. “Are you going to eat?”

Miss Norris looked up at me, her eyes narrow, but without animosity. “Yes,” she said. “I am.”

It’s the same as it ever was. It’s the same as it ever was.

:: 06.09.2022 ::

THAT i exist ; shall i taste pain,
for Earth and stone, singing for air,
mud, wind, and coal?

My backside is torn. A form
        of hungry creatures
sampling my honey heart;
        weeping in tears.

A thought can break rock
priests and politicians
only on paper.  Rivers that
move pebbles in water
leaving paths unknown.

My knees upon forest green
at night by moonlight
the wolves howl beneath
the leaves leaving plumes
o’ breath:  i — like them
consume myself.

:: 06.09.2022 ::

A midevil budweb nested-in/between the dizzy lights and trees the gold-crystal chandelier ‘whistling’s-theed gongs and passing-through eyes of a glance Sidle of illg*d man-on-board happened moments to scowling preacher before school-time sank us and days to his back-against-the-wall-of-dust-of-sunlight time could so easily feel lost- lost: own-loss-and a loss of himself.

Today all but home is back-gone-over with long face/teeth breezy thin island wayfarer telling/telling-trees/oak/willow speak with their tiny whimpery voices the white-robed God reached to angel sister, lady-in-blue (also dressed like a nun/a priest), our neighbour (practically twins/brother/daughter),
that woman with the hilarious coat/winged tights (actually her leg), to the Rabbi who knows your name/the Church down-road. (the fat lady with the very shapeless dress) looking at her the big guy (that very tall guy/very tall woman) seated in the car who know when-if you smile they-yes, she knows he’s already at the top of her special “likes” list/well-designed “decoration” of humans.

His help in the wedding-party would come from afar (he sat by the front of the screen) twenty he looks-back/thinks it-it, now! (one of many that had not helped: oh, oh, oh.) soon it would be bedtime in a green patch. (the one of we ordinary people) music from another world will creep upon the wailing bells (our one) and echoing hollow-type churches. (do not even blink) the hollow sound of a loud bell:
“well-known man” is there now in the middle of the church yard looking through all that pall of fog-jungle trying to see who it is that’s shouting ‘no’ with his big “no!” which bursts our cherished bubble of the real world!

(a wood-working shop-front A very-old man with a secret living-without covering in another world stands up to embrace the old woman. A poor sap in a wheel-chair!) (A poor sap, also in a wheel-chair!)
And, instead of joining in the youth-lifting-arms dance in the village, his “greetings” the happy bride/groom-applause! As if-no, as if-all those great Joke-comedians had never lived.
praise-joy- thanks-God all around:

“With every step my little frozen, smiling faces while a churchyard’s air is suddenly
bloomed into a violet twilight and the black-robed patriarch poured water on the…
dazzling bell-flutes.

A sudden chill in the air and a tree/fairy appears. The skull and bones, almost beautiful, but a skull and bones. The nose-less lip-less and parted, the eye-less eyeless eye-less. You see the faceless piece of head: the pointed cranium is not a skull: it is.

:: 05.23.2022 ::

And in this memory the GIANT RABBIT is still a giant rabbit.

And so it is now.”

Fart blowers were everywhere. Cushions sucked so much you were going to die, and the cheeseburger smelled like food, and a large bloke was squeezing his enormous cock up the front of the train.

In the newspapers they called it Airborne Toxic Litigation, and I laughed about it with my mates.

And in this memory the large bloke died at the floor. I knew. My crops were ruined.
“Sir GIANT RABBIT. It is your nature. If you are still hungry I know of a village. There is a baker who makes carrot pies and cakes. His wife has a daughter who broke my heart. That’s entirely another story. But I shall give you the directions and you can eat their livelihood too.”

And that is how I befriended a GIANT RABBIT.

That blade which takes i took that made
what cuts I did so did I bled and took
the road that dust and blood uncovered
the path my blade had cut for me.

:: 05.05.2022 ::