- 15 -
"Well, I am certainly glad
I said all that I did, and I did say things, didn't I?"
"I heard that you did, but
I of course didn't hear them myself. I only heard that others heard
. . ."
"While the others who did
hear, we haven't heard from them!"
"Echoes grow louder in the
outer universe. Did you know that?"
"How convenient."
"Who convenient, what convenient?"
"Leonardo deVinci knew that.
He also had the image that if the sun came hurtling toward the earth,
it would grow smaller and smaller as it came."
"Does this mean that at the
edge of the universe your poems, barely rippling here, are huge and
unavoidable."
"I guess it does. They are
probably huge and unavoidable, billboard size."
"Yes! The sun! Until it shoots
like a bullet with the density of all the universe into the heart
of a single citizen standing on the avenue, sensing his execution."
"That could be happening
all the time. They just have to bring in another large sun to replace
the one that hurtled through time, another sun and another sun, else
the tapestry wouldn't alarm the sun-bathers and sun-gazers."
"By wheelbarrow, right?"
"My, what things can be imagined!"
"The sun is an assassin!
The killer with a million precisely aimed darts of deadly light! I
like it."
"There is nothing that cannot
be imagined. And everything that is imagined also is, as least as
imagined, if not then promptly installed by the congratulating worker
gods."
"Go speak the truth."
"In the ancient world the
gods were not discreet, like of late, but visible lumbering giants!"
"With names like . . ."
"Or speedy little demons!"
"What do we actually know
for sure?"
"Or, better yet, who are
we?"
"What do we surely actually
know--is the song, if you know it."
"When you find people frowning
at you, it means they don't understand why you can't make yourself
more clear."
"Get it?"
"It's all true. Some thought
truth was an essence, a precious metal, a stock portfolio! But truth
is a novelty. The contents of a flea market! As a child -the prophet
most liked to roam the five and dime store. As an adult he listened
to your five and dime store ramblings."
"He amuses himself. While
others scowl. Yet others snore. Yet he laughs at the images in his
funhouse mind. And then, to one day find so much confirmed . . ."
"The prophet deigns to rub
elbows with others, the cut-offs of humankind. Well and good and we
should be honored."
"I thought he said he wasn't
a prophet."
"And yet we only mock. We
show our jealous selves, and mock the only man among us who is clothed
in royal robes--or are those rags?"
"I said I hate it when people
keep exuding their winning personalities. Some stranger haplessly
happens into their��r midst and with their friends, who know
this is a sham, watching,, start exuding, dripping all over, face
glowing, eyes swarming with delusional fervor, etc. And why?"
"It's disgraceful."
"Why do friends allow their
friends to carry on with that false personality, especially at parties."
"After a certain number of
parties, one hates parties--that's for certain."
"One prefers quiet card games
with reliable honest friends for life."
"With a fistful of corn chips
in arm's reach of all, so that without loýlooking up even--"
"It's always too late; one
is caught thinking--there she goes again. And talking about it afterwards
does no good. People can never be forewarned to thwart their eccentricities."
"What, they have to be swatted
down right in the act?"
"Like I say, they never are.
They just get worse and worse--like . . . "
"Again, for lack of an example
my attention grows weary, my sense of a great vagueness surrounding
like humidity--"
"Did I mention that the shower
in my hotel suite has no hot water. Nor cold water. But only tepid,
temperature-less water."
'"Maybe this is the first
stages of a nightmare. Going relatively easy on us for a start."
"This analyzing the way people
are or used to be, this flaunting of our little accumulated understanding
of human psychology, what is the point of it?"
"It's inevitable. So embrace
it."
"Do I assume that--I can
hardly say it: once taken does a person stop, you
know, aging and the like?"
"You'll just have to wait
and see! Ha!"
"Time is not passing her�›e.
They just change the background scenery to give a sense of time passing,
or a verisimilitude (there is another word I wanted to ban!), and
they don't do it very convincingly, I must say. In fact--"
"It's laughable. Apparently
some of the scenery artists have never seen reality."
"Not even soothing, or reminiscent.
Just clumsy. But not even funny. You know, maybe you are right--"
"This is a nightmare."
"And it's stepping up, of
course--with the realization."
"Panic begets worse panic,
we all know that from experience, I must say! Oh yes, there is one
thing we all know for sure!"
"Why do you shout at the
end of every sentence you speak. You start talking in a low rumble
and end with a god-damned cannon in my face."
L"Was that thunder? That
sounded like real godlike thunder.
