Homage, 3 dreams in bright technicolour

by the bastard child

Posted to Stories on 2003-01-19 16:14:00



1. PINK AND PURPLE

The kids are playing in the park. They are dancing, singing, laughing. Swinging. They are going higher and higher. Higher and higher. They are hanging upside down. Their little shirts and dresses pointing to the ground. Their little legs and underwear exposed. They are playing cops and robbers. The cubbyhouse is the jail. It is being guarded by two boys, the biggest and toughest of the boys. They are playing doctors and nurse. The smallest boy is lying on a bench his shirt is pulled up. A girl is standing over him. She has a piece of bark in her hand. The bark is pressing into the boys’ stomach. Cutting down his ribcage. His stomach. Opening it. She has stopped now and is pretending to pull something out. It is a piece of grass. She hands it to another boy who is standing besides her holding other bits of grass and twigs. He, the other boy, hands her a small twig. She thanks him and begins sowing back up the stomach, starting from the bottom and working her way up. Slowly. Carefully. One stitch at a time. When it’s all done she puts a hand on the boy, tells him he’ll be fine, and yells next. Another boy lies down on the bench and it begins again. The bark, the grass, the twig, the stitches. Next. They are playing family. Two children, a boy and a girl acting as parents another two acting as children and one acting as a cat. The cat seems to be getting the most enjoyment out of it. The rest of the family seems bored as if they would rather be playing cops and robbers or doctors and nurses. Watching it all is a man. He is neither old nor young, tall or short, fat nor skinny. He just is. There. Sitting on a bench, notebook and pen in one hand, watching the birds fly by. Watching the trees rustle to and fro to and fro. Just watching and writing. And then he stands. And then he speaks. In a low soothing tone. A tone that the children at first ignore continuing to play robbers, nurses and parents until one by one each of them are hypnotised and turn and watch this man on the bench. Turn and listen to him tell them all that you must have rhythm and melody, rhythm and melody for without it there will be no magic and without any magic there will be no dancing and without any dancing there will be nothing. Nothing. A singer, the children shout. A singer. That’s what the old man is. He’s a singer. And they go back to their games for that one question they’ve all been asking has just been answered.

2. ORANGE

She is walking and talking and sitting and staring. She is part of a luncheon for a boating party as well as being a portrait of a lady. She is watching the train flash by the lines blurring with movement as she watches a group of men going to work walking in unison. She is lying naked her breasts on show for the whole world to see. She is clothed watching her husband coming home from work. Her kids play in the playground. The landscape as the sun sets on a late summer evening. The landscape as the sun rises on a spring morning. She is a bird sitting in the trees. She is a bee flying overhead as a tiger tries to eat her. She is a bowl of fruit. She is lines and blobs. She is a smile. She is an eyebrow. A monobrow. No eyebrow. She is big. She is small. She is wide. She is narrow. She is bright. She is dark. She is shaded. She is not. She is everywhere. She is nowhere. She is nothing. She is something. She is like a painter. She is a painting.

3. GREEN

“The answer to all questions lies in the answer to the one question.”

“He who seeks the greatest knowledge shall reap the biggest crop.”

“Justice comes in all shapes and form but all shapes and form do not come to justice.”

“To say that one, and only one, man is all mighty and powerful is to deny the ability that all men have to be mighty and powerful.”

“Language is the one thing that we all have in common to take that away from us is to refute our very existence and put society at a great, great risk.”

“It is often said that the ability of one to learn is equally matched by the ability of one to speak.”

“If Life is a game then it’s basketball and I am the ball.”

“Although in many respects Marx was the greatest critic of capitalism it is safe to say that without the likes of Hegel and to a lesser extent Kant he would never have become what he was.”

“The normal man will ask of the world ‘why is it so, why?’ and demand answers whereas the philosopher will ask of the world ‘so this is so, but why?’ and expect no answers, that my friend is the difference between the normal man and the philosopher. That my friend is the difference between you and me.”