Friday, December 11, 2020

mmmxcv

interstate travels

in an immaculate arizona lavatory

we found a turquoise feather of

copper heritage.  then we burst forth

like a volcano from the earring section.

within the closed triangle of cash registers

the language is silence.  someone, the template

of gorgeous, nearly runs us over with a mop.

we’ve been caught.  necking in the bobble-heads

aisle.  gorgeous has destroyed each compound

of heretofore perfection, made a jagged body

out of every impossible slat or chunk and, util

izing what now unmistakably means eyes, leads

us to the lavatory that had served up that beautiful

odd piece of what we’d always called the knickknacks

of the great southwest
.  which have always been so easy

to find.  once inside the squeaky clean bathroom, we

both give each other a silent look that says what the...

how did we miss the portal on the wall?
  as mind-

boggling as that was, we’d need never put words to

it or anything else ever again.  we would never need to

scrunch up our faces and try to come up with the right

noises - in reasonable order - with which to ponder the

relationship between the two of us, or those between us,

singly and individually, and anything else we’d have said

exists.  because we already knew where we were going.

the last few details were not really considered, but were

nonetheless experienced.  the deity fills the urinal with

some – overflowing – lava.  i can remember clutching my

phone in my hand, but each hand was deep within its pocket.

and then there was an explosion.  we were desert-side

long enough to make out that it was happening some

where near the silver dollar belt buckles.  clean

restrooms are a way of life.  where once we

proffered our bucks and displayed our ex

pended garbage.  i leaned down to snag a

striking anklet, a splendid find, from

the clean floor.  our god’s mouth opens

huge and out comes an epiphany of

wildly searing pitch.  all pitches.  it

is a way of saying step through this

hole in the restroom wall as it swirls in 

all colors and leads toward a soupy dark

ness, like a saturday morning cartoon,

just on the other side of a

mop bucket.  the water in the

bucket is clear.  we step

into the dust, which

we can quickly

determine is

made of tiny

intricately woven

reticules.  there’s

a lake the color

of a long-discon-

tinued crayon.


open hole