[Seven by Nine Squares home page] [Ackerman] [Neoist Path]

Jan '94

Dear Florian the Neoist,

As a founding member of my local chapter of Jolted Cans Clatter, I was filled with excitement upon reading certain portions of your most recent letter, and filled with remnants of the Elks' Club in Elkhart, Indiana, upon reading certain others. Our offices are ever on patrol for the bright long days of fried potatoes and fried cabbage and the vows are the same as those without this silence characterized by the blood you have lost like a poetry lesson begun too late. Commentators found evidence in Russia for whatever positions they wanted to take.

But my real reson for writing is to talk about "KaREN (uh, pardon me, I hit the wrong key in my drunkenness) "Karen's Mattress," this opera I'm in the process of writing, with the help of Karen herself, whose story it is. "Karen's Mattress" is, in a word, the story of a beautiful young woman and her shall-we-say rather overweening fondness for her mattress. Specifically, she likes to use her mattress for purposes of masturbation. A noble theme, and as the opera begins we find Karen and her mattress climbing (Christ and cross theme); then they pause to wash and drink in a mountain brook (not necessarily in that order). Green finches come, and a cocky little ogre runs back and forth over the acorns, shying quick stones to keep his feet in line, and a Yoni appears, bringing up the rear and looking perhaps for its Lingham, perhaps for tendencies that still keep the barn stacked high with that good pure sensuous form (Pyrola Uniflora). Startled by all the various presences, Karen and her mattress skip away downhill to meet Mike Gold in Soviet Russia. At this juncture the following duet between Karen's Mattress and Mike Gold is sung (Karen meanwhile remaining in the canyon):

Meanwhile, back in the cave with the [many] porters, Karen gives no formal teaching or training but redeems all beings by the very paltriness of her wardrobe (a sort of grass hula skirt and inner tube.) With elaborate hand movements she does the DANCE OF CAGED RIBS AND INADEQUATE BLADDER CONTROL. The porters, who have been standing around passing an army uniform back and forth between them, are amazed by Karen's dance.

GALOOT IN THE DOUBLE PEACH TREE

    Galoot in the double peach tree
 Reaching for the double
peach
            Mouth hole eating laundry fast,
  and yeah
and passed fat's
                        chewed very deep down
same chin you drooled
     down, but depends,
     could be
pasture wanders and nobody notices
 the spat-glittery hat means
all lotioned wrists
                                              
          and whoring the body
       of a pustule
 you chilled
while cracking up;
               eating mildewed laundry's a sure
sign that your
 brain's sizzling
doing a disappearing act
----
That disappearance took 
longer than it 
should
have;
Get fixed yellow light
in 4 parts tear apart
All
non-concupiscence! Till you may feel
Sure a wet towel from a hotel
bathroom
In Quebec sick as a pilot
Who crumples stiffly after
mistaking
Touch a romantic new perfume by Fred
Hayman Beverley
Hills for a shot of
Vat 69 in the dark had been used
To close
her eyes to this world. And yet there
Was no mark of strangulation
on MY
NECK. I took the phone call,
The news of your arrest,
calmly enough,
My vatic gaze undimmed, my concupiscence
Pure
and undimmed as war and madness
It's interesting, the idea that
concupiscence
Doesn't count, if it happens again and
again.
Does concupiscence kick in when you say,
"She had been
with a woman for five years,
I had been with a bullfrog for six."
Tell
Me about your favorite concupiscence,
The concupiscence
that makes you realize
You made the right decision in becoming a
gnat-eyed little
butt-stringer.  Problem:
I lost half my hair
to concupiscence
When I developed an overweening fondness for my
Flow-Bee....

               *      *      *
So that was some of it.

Sacco and Vanzetti as leftist heros, etc.

Ackerman.