#1.
Cats and Crazy Razors
1.
Slithering the length of a drainpipe, ( which ( not having been fashioned
to support human weight) found human weight insupportable ( yet
supported it nevertheless ) ) a naked rapist escaping through a window ( left
open by careless attendants at the county branch of the state mental hospital
system ( a feudal manse in the heart of the dying town ( near the banks of the
great river (dying and churning quietly downstream)) )) descended the
drainpipe by noiseless slithering.
To support the insupportable and to support it well, to do it noiselessly,
(without the slightest soft groan (or sigh) of complaint) was the drainpipe’s
outstanding achievement. All other things (such as transporting water
(through gutters (clogged or unclogged) on the tin roof of the feudal manse
(wherein were locked up so many minds thrashing about in hopeless
perdition) to gutters (clogged or unclogged) on the ground)) it did badly.
As he had chosen to make good his escape in the demonic fury of an
unanticipated thunderstorm, ( in the course of which more water fell onto
the terminal moraines of the river valley than at any other time in living
memory ) the naked rapist ( long before reaching ( by noiseless slithering)
the base of the drainpipe ) was soaked to the bones.
Therewith ( skin bitter and wet hair jutting in stiff frozen spikes ) ran
he howling into the wilderness of the world, roaming through the valley
seeking God or shelter, until ( eventually) he came to the woodshed under the
bedroom of the lovers’ house. Here, once more , he ( beside the velvet glow of
an improvised peat briquette fire ) fell asleep
( cradled ( in sweet dreams (of rape))).
For the world is connected in just such a fashion.


#2.
2.
At the time that the woman (after watching a moving moving picture
(about a woman (ruined (by her love (for a man))))) stepped into the street
through the door of the cinema she saw, running up the street, a man (for
whom she conceived a love (that would ruin her)).
In such a fashion are the situations of this world connected.
The woman’s lonely eyes followed his movement (alone in the dying
urban settlement (by the banks of the great river dying)) up the lonely
commercial thoroughfare (even as her heart yearned for the love of the lover
(portrayed as living in an urban settlement (dying by the banks of a great river
dying)) in the movie she had just seen). Her melancholy slow walk directed
her ( slowly moving on the cobblestoned quays ) against the current of the
mighty river and its quiet downstream movement ( its belly churning with
angers for grievances unresolved from ancient geological epochs ) .
Shedding its spectral wan, the great eye of the sun stepped through the
door of heaven to cast its dazzling love over all things , ruined, entombed or
resurrected, all creatures dying and yearning.
When the man ( thickly entangled in litigation ) stepped through the
door of the courthouse ( having just received a verdict confirming his total
financial ruin ) and ( running up the street ) saw the woman ( who ( having
just seen a moving moving picture about a woman ( ruined ( by her love (for a
man )))) walked alone in melancholy fashion on the cobblestoned quay
( against the churning of the mighty river and its quiet movement
downstream ) and who ( upon seeing him ) conceived a love
( that ruined her ), he conceived a desperate scheme ( involving her and not
devoid of cynical calculation ) that would restore his shattered fortunes
( though in the end it would cost him dearly).
As everyone knew, she was rich.
After awhile one becomes accustomed to just such connections.
#3.
Several hours later ( while the full moon dropped its frenzies into the fat
night as feathers will drop out of a slit mattress ; the cat sat on the fence
chewing razor blades under the moon; and the couple made love ( on the
antique wooden bedstead in the attic of her elegant home) all the fat night
long ), their agonized shrieks ( as the mattress (swaying with grief and
misfortune) pushed against the antique wooden bedstead ( that ( dreaming
sweet melancholy dreams of glorious stays in farms manors and granges )
softly groaned ) and softly groaned ) slit the air ( chill with the frost of power )
like razors (slitting (the throat (of a cat))) .
The river ( heaving against the banks of the river ( which, swollen by
grief and misfortune, overflowed its banks ) ) rolled its waters (swollen by
grief ( and by misfortune as well ) ) quietly downstream. Clasping the full
moon to its grieving busom the river heaved and turned, heaved and turned,
heaving and turning some more, turning over and over like a pair of lovers
forsaking dinner, who (in the grip of carnal appetites ) make love on empty
and groaning stomachs .
The rainbow trout (teeming in the belly of the river (churning with
angers from grievances unresolved since ancient geological epochs)) and
rendered spasmodic through the imbibing of curdled psychogenic medications
( the contents of boatloads of pill-stuffed bottles dumped nightly into the
mighty river by the sinister county extension of the state mental hospital
system (located right here in the heart of this dying town (not far from the
dying river’s flooded banks) ) ) leapt , wriggling in rainbow arcs joyous and
ecstatic against the full moon’s (which, stepping through the door of heaven,
cast its bleak and blighted love over all things, spectral and wan, blessed or
wretched, joyous or grieving across the plenitude of the broad river valley)
ruinous dying.
Already several times has it been remarked ( and cannot be remarked
too often) that the state’s mental health administration had sited a sinister
#4.
hospital in this county (in the very heart in fact of the dying town ( near the
banks of the great river dying ( whose quiet passage downstream soothed
many a mind locked up in its feudal manse and thrashing about in hopeless
perdition))) .
And if the two starving lovers ( who ( having forgone dinner in
deference to their carnal appetites ) had been making love on empty and
groaning stomachs ( and who ( motionless after too much and too moving
moving) now lay motionless bereft of all misanthropy delusion or rapture ) )
had strained to listen, they would have heard the steady plop-plop-plop of
boatloads of pill-stuffed bottles of curdled neuroleptic medications being
dumped into the river’s churning belly (angry through too many grievances
unresolved from ancient geological epochs ) blighting future generations of
river trout, and poisoning hereafter all life forms who might have the
misfortune to eat them.
But the couple heard nothing (nothing, that is, beyond the feverish hum
of moonbeams gamboling about the face of the earth ( spectral and wan
beneath the beaming moon ) ; the cat dying (over its razor blades); the
microwave radiation (buzzing at 3° Kelvin from all directions of the universe);
the belching of the rocks (in the terminal moraines) ; and the gleeful
warblings of the skunk cabbages (infesting the alluvial plains (of the river
valley.)))
Out of the woodshed under the lovers’ house a naked rapist fled unseen,
running along the river banks back to the safety of (albeit sinister) corridors
of the state mental hospital ( from which ( unseen ) he had but lately fled ).
The blood spurting from the grim cicatrices on the soles of his feet ( lacerated
by thorns, glass shards of broken bottles, and a shower of razor blades
(dropping with a steady plop-plop-plop from the mouth of the cat (sitting on
the fence against the light of the full moon) )) laid down a trail (as a crimson
#5.
carpet of moonbeams will illuminate a swarm of ants upon a forest floor) of
blood .
Thickly colonizing the alluvial plains of the broad river valley, the
infestations of skunk cabbages furiously farted jungle crime. Rainbow arcs of
buzzing moonbeams melted over river banks (flooded (by the river( in
flood))) . The devious trajectory of the rapist ( devious as the shedding of
white leaves off willow branches ( from which dangle the mutilated corpses of
hanged lovers )) criss-crossed the breadth of the heaving river ( heaving and
churning mightily downstream past peaks pinnacles and dungeons of
antique castles ( and profoundly angry with grievances unresolved from
ancient geological epochs )) in numerous places.
Greedily leaping and plunging , counterpointing the rainbow arcs of the
ecstatic rainbow trout, he drank up the drug-saturated river waters ( each
globular moonbeamed drop frosty as a Thorazine tablet in the freezers of
sinister state mental hospitals (whose many locked-up denizens thrash about
in hopeless perdition)) soothing his nerves in the night’s fatty balm.
3.
Early the next morning the woman (following through on a resolution
(silently resolved ( in the depths (of that interminable and delicious night))))
slinked (quite early the following morning) to a splendid California town.
Thereby did she confirm possession of her adored lover. Once having arrived
on the West Coast she took an assumed name and married a complete stranger.
Not one coal-black hair, not one lipstick stain, not a single discarded
cigarette butt , not one lingering sweat drop (not even one unpaid bill!)
remained in the moribund town decaying flake by flake into the maelstrom of
the heaving river ; nothing whatsoever remained to remind the man ( who
daily walked the quays alone in melancholy fashion ( against the currents of
the mighty river churning quietly downstream ) ) of the woman who had ( in
#6.
the fat night ) made love to him while the cat sat on the fence (chewing razors
under the full moon ) .
Pinned down for the next decade in the decrepit citadel, (known
throughout the river valley as the source of the ecstatic river trout) the man
retained from his encounter with her only his dreams ( joyous with longing
and despair : rich costly dreams; brilliant dreams; dreams to nourish him a
lifetime )
........ until he too, following his destiny (his destined destiny ( tracking
him implacably as the gleeful warblings of skunk cabbages will chorus the
lusts of a naked rapist tangled in the thornbrakes) ) would leave the alluvial
plains of the river valley in search of her .
Daily, hour by hour , sometimes minute by minute, from the vantage of
that splendid California town (where, for a decade, she raised three children
given her by a man about whom she knew nothing and cared less,
(until ( joyous with longing and despair ) he wound up in the county extension
of the state mental hospital system (a sinister place, its corridors ringing with
demented laughter ) lapping up Thorazine from saucers and leaping with the
ecstatic rainbow trout )the obsessed woman offered up silent prayers to her
distant lover , praying with all the force of her wounded soul that he would
never be able to find her.
For she wanted him all to herself. She demanded nothing less than total
possession. Yet destiny (her destined destiny (tracking her implacably as the
warbling of skunk cabbages will chorus the lusts of a naked rapist tangled in
the thornbrakes)) pushed her...
to a rendezvous....
with her unvanquished lover....
through which she lost....
everything....


#7.

4.
The day arose like cracked crystal, clear and brittle. Soft odors oozed
through the crevices of dawn as eagles, infatuated with their own majesty,
swooped down in tortured arcs. The heaving bulk of the mighty river ( turgid
as swampy mud, evanescent as dried bracken, its belly churning with
grievances (unresolved from ancient geological epochs)) curled impetuously
through the broad valley ( over which arose an auroral hum ( layer upon layer
of sanctified vibrations like the screeches of scattered flocks of birds (or the
din of (unsynchronized) orchestras ))) .
It happened that on this morning an ecstatic rainbow trout (leaping and
swooping in addled and majestic tortured arcs;pestering the sun (for favors);
shaking (with the chill frost of power) ;disbursing (like trains of rubies and
pearls cast in reckless abandon ) sprays of tart droplets; and slurping (from
drug polluted waters ) greedily on each downward scuttle) arced itself boldly
over the turgid muddy bulk of the heavey river and plopped down onto the
cobblestones of the melancholy quays.
It was just about that time when the man (having recently arisen from
his bed (that ( melancholy through memories of past ecstasies of razor blades
and love ) softly groaned)) while going (along the way that led to the
courthouse)to the courthouse, (to learn each day of his impending ruin)
rattled his bulky briefcase along the moribund streets of the rotting hamlet.
Groaning softly the rainbow trout heard his softly groaning
(on the melancholy quays (which under the approaching footsteps softly
groaned) approaching footsteps.
The rainbow trout (meekly squeaking) cried to these approaching
footsteps (meekly squeaking on the melancholy quays (which under the
approaching footsteps squeaked meekly))!
#8.
The approaching footsteps , approaching ever closer (and closer) ,
approached. Nothing even remotely approaching these approaching footsteps
had ever approached the rainbow trout before. In consequence thereof the
rainbow trout (leaping in higher (and ever higher)) rainbow arcs, died.
Through this confrontation with the dead trout (who (by the time he reached
it) was quite dead indeed) the man was stopped dead in his tracks.
Curious fish! So to die on the path of the man as he went (on the way
that (going to the courthouse) led to the courthouse) to the courthouse to
receive confirmation (as he did every day) anew of his total financial ruin!
It was at around the same time that the captured rapist (strapped (by the
sleeves of his strait jacket) to the frame of an (softly groaning) unmattressed
metal bed) furiously farted jungle crime.
The man picked up the dead fish examined it curiously put it in his
briefcase then continued walking (along the way going (to the courthouse
( that led to the courthouse)) to the courthouse.
The sun’s mighty arms twisted the early morning out of recognizable
proportion, propagating confusion down the sky’s taffy mass. Ribbons of
ecstatic rainbow trout (surging in majestic counterpoint against the stream
gradients of the river) intersected the stream gradients of the muddy river’s
bulk. These turbid lines of force, wriggling torsion and contusion, pulverized
the viscous maelstrom into millions of sparkling drizzles. The curtains of
distant mountains heaved, sighing like cracked jawbones. Grim forebodings
of doom compressed the minds of all denizens of the sleepy citadel (dying
inexorably (by the banks of a great river’s dying)) .


#9.

5.
The woman had already seen the movie more than thirty times. On the
last occasion, (when it came to the part where the man picks up the fish studies
it (curiously) puts it in his briefcase then continues walking ( along the way
which leads to the courthouse) to the courthouse ( to receive ( as he does every
time he goes there) confirmation of his total financial ruin )) she( stuffing a
handkerchief in her mouth to arrest the onset of hysterical sobbing) got up
from her seat and quickly left the theater. She knew what would happen next
and could not bear to see it.
The sun’s rays diffused a mist of rubies and pearls through the ozone
sludge, as the woman stepped through the door of the cinema onto the street.
Although she had just witnessed a moving moving picture (about a woman
(ruined (by her love (for a man)))), she, (upon seeing a man (running (up the
street))) was possessed by a love that would ruin her.
It is just such connections which determine the things of this world.
While going to the courthouse (along the way that ( going to the
courthouse) led to the courthouse) the man dreamed up a ruse to escape his
creditors. He would no longer continue going (along the way which leads to
the courthouse) to the courthouse but would instead return to the cobblestones
of the melancholy quays. He would then continue walking (against the current
of the mighty river (along the way which leads to the county extension of the
state mental hospital system)) until he came to the grounds of the county
extension of the state mental hospital system. Stopping before the
entranceway to its’ feudal manse (wherein lay untold minds locked up and
thrashing about in hopeless perdition) and claiming to be a madman ( a threat
to himself and others (and an embarrassment to his family)) he would
demand to be locked up, immediately!
#10.
The river concentrated its embittered dreams and parceled them
downstream. Impatient foam broke over the waves as agitation reigned in the
lower depths.
Yet, as he turned off the street, (veering away from going to the
courthouse (along the way which led to the courthouse) to go to the mental
hospital (along the way that led to the mental hospital)) and turned his head
to glance at the posters on the walls of the cinema, he saw a woman who
( having just seen a moving moving picture about a woman ruined by her love
for a man (and who ( upon seeing him ) would conceive a love for him that
would ruin her ) ) , walked against the current of the river) , he conceived a
desperate scheme ( not devoid of cynical calculation ) that would restore his
shattered fortunes ( though it was destined ( a tracking implacable destiny )
to cost him dearly in the end ) .
Quite late( in the (late) evening of the same day(while the full moon
dropped (as feathers will drop out of a slit mattress) its frenzies into the fat
night ; the cat sat on the fence( chewing razor blades (all the fat night long)) ;
and the 3° Kelvin microwave radiation buzzed from all directions of the
universe )) the couple paused long enough (on the mattress of the antique
wooden bedstead ( which ( in the attic ( of her elegant home ) ) softly
groaned) from their love-making to discuss the transfer (the following
morning) to his bank account of most of the deeds to her property .
Gamboling moonbeams cast their feverish bids upon the earth’s pallid
rocks, while (all the fat night long) the triumphant warbling of the skunk
cabbages (bedded down in the terminal moraines and alluvial plains of the
great river valley) chorused the lusts of naked rapists, (who (tangled in the
thornbrakes of the world) furiously farted jungle crime.)
In the long pauses between nuzzling and moaning the man explained to
the woman how the county extension of the state mental hospital system
(located right in this town (near the banks of the mighty river (churning
#11.
quietly downstream ))) had turned him away at the gothic entranceway to its
feudal manse.
Alas! All softly groaning metal bedsteads set aside for the use of
businessmen (whose briefcases stank of Thorazine -saturated trout (and who
wanted to avoid the confirmation of their total financial ruin)) were filled. He
was told that, if his condition showed no improvement, he should re-apply in
three weeks.
The agonized shrieks of the lovers slit the air (naked with the chill frost
of power) as razors will slit the thoracic membranes of cats in the grasp of
brutal research vivisectionists. At the height (between nuzzling and moaning)
of their frenzy even the man imagined he might be in love (a serious error that
was to cost him dearly in the long run). The swaying mattress (swaying with
grief between moaning nuzzling and misfortune ( and groaning softly ))
pumped the pompous wooden antique bedstead which ( lost in its melancholy
sweet dreams (of glorious pasts (in manor farm and grange))) softly groaned .
The woman left the antique bedstead long enough to think through,
write out, and sign a document giving to the man all of her assets taking the
form of real estate investments around the world. Included was a proviso that
he succeed in finding her after she would flee ( unseen) to a splendid
California town ( where (moulting its’ bitter spectral glow in glittering
sheaths ) infallibly, the great eye of the sun casts a rejuvenating love over all
things ruined and whole, men and women dying and yearning, cat, skunk,
cabbage and trout ) in the early dawn of the following morning .
Measured by any one of a number of means ( the amount of blood that
had dripped in a steady plop-plop-plop from the mouth of the fence cat
( under the full moon ( swollen and acrid as a bitter lemon ) ; the buzz of
microwave radiation at 3° Kelvin from all directions of the universe ; the
gratified warblings of the skunk cabbages( infesting the alluvial plains all
along the river valley); or the feverish hum of moonbeams gamboling about
#12.
the rocks ( spectral and wan beneath the beaming moon )), the writing of
this document took about two hours. Then she ( the woman that is ) crawled
(naked and shivering) back under the eiderdown quilt ( covered by a cloth
bag ( whereon were crocheted ecstatic rainbow trout ( drunk in Thorazinesaturated waters and leaping high in spasmodic arcs ))); and, turning on her
side( clutched in the hairy embrace of her slumbering lover) fell into a
profound sleep scarred by many a dream of unmitigated catastrophe.
Under the cover of the indigo eyes of night (seeping black pollution in
thick clouds) a naked rapist (swift as a bat’s dying) fled out of the woodshed
of the lovers’ house and into the thornbrakes of the world. Birds nesting in
resplendent trees (nestling about the broad river valley (wherein rich alluvial
mud ambled thickly in terminal moraines to the banks of the dying river))
warbled unutterable melodies , awe-inspiring by virtue of their unutterably
silent silence.
Transcendental hums ( permeating the buzz of microwave radiation at 3°
Kelvin) boggled the universe, disrupting causation , scintillating horrors and
holocausts, inducing nightmares in slumbering ghosts, awakening, in gods
and demons their sharp spectral lusts. Saintly avatars masquerading as
derelicts wandered the desolate countryside receiving no sanctuary. With fires
around the globe devastating territories the size of nations, millions of lost
souls hung out (bored) in restaurants ( filling the air with their petulance and
idiotic chatter (or reading the newspapers)).
And the lovers slept on.
And on. And on and on. On and on they slept onward through the
ecstatic arcings of boggled catastrophes, corrosion flaming at the heart of the
world.


#13.
6.
Once upon a time (which may have been coincident with that of the
events chronicled above ( or equally before or after ( there being no necessary
temporal connection between them ))) there did conspire ( in a certain
splendid California town) a similar drama involving a different cast of
characters ( equivalently, a thoroughly dissimilar drama involving the same
cast of characters ( it being entirely a matter of one’s inclinations to
acknowledge the greater claims of one or the other interpretation (or of none at
all !))).
The author contents himself with merely recording the facts.
Save for a few monstrously thewed Redwood trees (kept in backyards
and exhibited as pets) almost everything in this splendid California town was
plastic. In this town( poised on a hill overlooking the valley and in a
prominent location) there stood a movie house. Day by day unremittingly
this emporium of dreams seeped (like toxic waste pustulating through cracks
in a septic tank) malevolence into the community (wounding souls;
catalyzing crimes; debauching the innocent; wrecking families; driving
depressives into obsession; obsessives into schizophrenia; schizophrenics into
paranoia; and paranoids into depression; sabotaging careers; degrading the
social fabric; destroying reputations; devastating fortunes; inspiring
dangerous schemes in the minds of lunatics; denigrating the wholesome
appetites of the poor ; vaunting the sick appetites of the rich.)
And so forth and so on .
It’s because of such things that the world is connected up as it is.
A woman had sat there (in the theatre) from the time it opened in the
early morning watching a deeply moving movie ( the story(of a woman,
ruined (by her love ( for a man))) many times over . Finally she stood up,
walked through the lobby, stepped out the door into the late evening. The sun,
#14.
formerly dazzling as a supernova bobbing in galactic foam, had disintegrated
to the size of a glum little cough drop melting into the horizon’s taffy mass.
At the edge of a super highway she stopped to stare across grinding
maelstroms formed from countless vehicles racing about in all directions.
Lifting herself up on the points of her toes, she craned her neck to see (giving
into her desperate need to see) what she had so desperately sought to avoid,
that image which (for a decade) had filled her heart (with longing (and fear )):
the sight of a man (striding (up the hill)) for whom she nurtured (like a
serpent suckling at her breast) a hopeless love (that would eventually
ruin her) .
The world’s connections operate in more or less this fashion.
Later that same evening ( walking ( alone (slowly (against traffic)) down
the melancholy streets of this splendid California town )) the woman walked
alone (and slowly(against traffic)) towards a fairly sinister institution ( the
regional extension of the state mental hospital system ) to make her weekly
visit to a man (his mind thickly entangled in strange delusions) :her husband .
The forlorn clatter of her ( softly groaning ) high heels (meekly squeaking on
the concrete embankment of the Interstate ) disappeared beneath the
pounding surge of vehicular traffic (which ( like the (pounding) hearts of
passionate lovers pounding (on antique wooden bedsteads (in the attics of
elegant homes ))) raced madly in all directions ) .
Poisonous smog dusted the adjacent settlements like a fine gossamer of
powdery angels’ wings.The noise of klaxons (from ambulances racing to the
sites of frequent accidents) blared across the chaos. Discord reigned
irrevocable( as the vehicular flow (churned mightily downstream)).
Her husband had many strange delusions: he believed (among other
things) himself to be a rainbow trout leaping in ecstatic rainbow arcs (under
the gamboling of moonbeams (spectral and wan feverish off livid rocks)). In
his imagination, his ecstatic dance intersected continually with the stream
#15.
gradients of the mighty downstream passage (of a heavey river (angry with
grievances (unresolved from ancient geological epochs))).
These delusions furthermore had been translated into action. Apart from
those rare occasions when it was deemed necessary to constrain him (in a strait
jacket and bound by leather straps) to an unmattressed metal cot (where,
(furiously farting jungle crime) he might lay for days at a time)) he was
allowed the privilege of a room all to himself. There (saturated in psychotropic
drugs) he was at liberty to leap about at will. This room was connected to an
adjacent corridor by a single window (only opened when his wife came for her
visit). She spoke to him with knitting in her lap from a chair in the corridor.
Their words floated back and forth through the opened window like giddy
minnows vaulting misty rainbows. Having nothing to say to one another,
they employed a great many words in not saying it.
Even as they conversed her mind remained far away (on the East Coast
(back in the little dying town by the banks of a great river dying) where the
man ( towards whom she ( obsessed with love ) ceaselessly rendered up
prayers that he would never be able to find her ) might still be living )))) .
Soused on Thorazine, Prolixin, Haldol, Demoral, and other neuroleptics,
her husband hadn’t the slightest notion of whom she was. He’d long forgotten
how to relate as human to human or even as trout to human. Only one mode of
relationship was accessible to him: trout to trout ( gleefully warbling with the
skunk cabbages ( furiously farting jungle crime) infesting the terminal
moraines of broad river valleys ; gloating over the bloody death agonies of
razor-chewing cats atop fences under the full moon’s spectral wan; or
chorusing the lusts of naked rapists ( hopelessly entangled in the thornbrakes
of the world )).
The life and death of the river valley flowed through the room to the
rhythm of his joyous dance (trout, skunk cabbages, lovers, rapists and
#16.
bloodied cats; the buzzing of the microwave radiation at 3° Kelvin pouring
down from all parts of the universe; and the churning of mighty rivers
(angry from too many grievances unresolved from ancient geological epochs
( flowing quietly downstream ))) flooded the overheated (and sinister) gloom.
Unperturbed, the woman sat quietly, working at her knitting, content in
the possession (of a husband (completely out of touch (with virtually
everything))). In her own fashion she really loved him : he gave her all that she
needed. With deep satisfaction she watched him leap and dance( like the spray
of tart spume off river foam). In a leaden voice devoid of all emotion she fed
him quotidian banalities, to which he responded with sweet trout whistles.
Between them at these moments one had the impression of the profoundest
communication : that species of communication which finds its keenest
delight in the total frustration of communication.
#17.

7.
On the upper floor of the county extension of the state mental hospital
system (located right in the heart of the dying town (not too far from the
banks of a great river dying ( whose quiet passage downstream soothed many
an inmate (locked up (and thrashing about) in hopeless perdition ))) the
doctors were doing crazy things to cats with razors. To the sounds of eyeballs
crushed underfoot ( shrieking (under the full moon’s spectral wan)), and the
droning plop-plop-plop of quarts of blood spilling off the rubber sheets
covering the operating tables , orderlies and interns (all of them eager for
knowledge (and deeply dedicated to the unavoidable suffering necessary for
scientific progress )) made (through the night’s fatty balm (as the full moon
will drop its frenzies into the fat night )) their routine rounds of the wards.
In the first room they discovered a rapist (cradled (in sweet dreams (of
rape))). Although bound to an unmattressed metal bedstead by leather straps
(and (save for his strait jacket) naked) his wrists had been slashed with the
rusted needle points of unsterilized syringes.
His left hand, broken free of the straps, dangled out the window
(through which the moonlight (bleak and bitter) gushed (in an icy stream)).
Blood dripped in a steady plop-plop-plop from the deep cuts in his wrists
onto the branches of the white willow ( from which dangled the nooses
holding the mutilated carcasses of the hanging lovers ( wildly careening from
the pounding of the valley winds )). His blood ( trickling through their matted
hair) dripped onto the open blades of skunk cabbages, (which ( in joyous
affirmation ) furiously farted jungle crime).
In the adjacent room they uncovered, steeped in the chill frost of
Power, a man and a woman in the clenches of coitus. Their shrieks slit the
night air (as feathers will drop out of a slit mattress (swaying in grief and
misfortune (and softly groaning))). Their brittle laughter slithered about the
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room like electric eels slithering noisily against antique wooden bedsteads (in
the attics of elegant homes (dreaming of glorious pasts in farms, manors, and
granges (and softly groaning))).
Locations and depths of the razor-inflicted gashes on their torsos were
dutifully recorded by the interns on notepads (attached to clipboards). Their
commingling blood (coagulating in puddles and pools (falling with a steady
plop-plop-plop onto the rotting floor boards of the feudal manse)) dripped
(onto the faces and bodies of the inmates (locked up ( their minds thrashing
about in hopeless perdition)) below).
On the top floor of the county extension of the state mental hospital
system (located right in the heart of the dying town (near the banks of the
great river dying)) doctors doing crazy things with razors slit the genitalia of
masturbated cats.
The shrieks of these wretched beasts fanned out over the terminal
moraines of the broad valley (ambling thickly with rich alluvial mud (livid
beneath the indigo sheen of the placental moon)). Across the plenitude of the
broad river valley arose an auroral hum (layer upon layer of sanctified
vibrations (like the screeching of scattered flocks of birds or the
(unsynchronized) din of many Philharmonic orchestras)).
The staff entered the third room. There they encountered a man who
leapt about (dancing in ecstatic rainbow arcs). He believed himself to be a
rainbow trout, wriggling and bouncing through Thorazine-saturated waters.
Deep razor cuts had flayed open his throat at the level of the gills. His blood
pulsed through these openings in spasmodic belches (flowing through the
room with the same anger that grievances (unresolved from ancient geological
epochs) will churn (in the belly( of a great river))).
Having completed their rounds the interns returned to the upper floors
of the hospital to report to their supervisors that nothing was amiss. All of the
patients were showing signs of progress. The doctors (wiping their feverish
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brows with blood-stained hands ( stained with blood (streaming (like the
evanescent scent off vermilion wildflowers (on moonlit forest trails (carpeted
with ants )) in all directions )) nodded their fevered and disingenuous
acknowledgments .
Across the broad river valley (crouching in the fat night (eloquent in its
(unutterably silent ) silence)) cats sitting on fences and chewing razors under
the full moon (which, stepping through the door of heaven, cast its bleak and
blighted love over all things (spectral and wan; blessed or wretched; joyous or
grieving( across the plenitude (of the broad river valley))) scream (as
feathers will drop out of a slit mattress) through the void’s immensity .


Roy Lisker 1986, 2015