1
Krista and I walk into a dark
warehouse-like building. Two men in blue
coveralls slouch there with pistol barrels
in their mouths. “No, don’t!”
we shout. They look despondent,
but put down their guns.
2
All the wallpaper in our house
is peeling, exposing yellowish wall.
We could fix it up, I say,
introduce some new color to our rooms.
3
A young woman who is somehow
my mother sits down on the side of the bed
and tells me I’m being sent to study
in America. This is supposed to be good news,
but the woman’s demeanor says otherwise.
Later in America I’m blindfolded
among other blindfolded people—
a school that teaches blindness.
4
A knock on the door around 3 a.m.
Krista and I run down to see who’s there.
From behind a sofa, a little girl
starts shooting at us. I lunge to disarm her.
5
A record album from the Sixties
by a group called The 90-Year-Old
Fetus. Duffer embryo with a white
beard and cane drawn by R. Crumb.
The name of the album is Forever Young.
6
Krista and I are standing on the edge
of a cliff watching an orange car
madly spinning in circles below.
The car builds up speed, careens
out of control, jumps a cross-street, nose-dives,
completely buries itself in snow.
7
A living snake has been skinned.
Holding it carefully in my consciousness
I am restoring, scale by scale,
its bright green skin.
.
Thomas R. Smith
Picture Rupert Loydell
.