The exercise:
Write about: the knock-off.
Finally got around to cleaning out the car and giving it an oil change this afternoon. I'd been ignoring the automated reminder for quite some time now, but between the weather and not having much free time it just wasn't happening. Glad to have that done now though.
Also went for a family walk at Haynes Point this morning. It's been a while since we made it out there and thankfully the lake levels weren't too high to get in the way too much. Though there was a rather large puddle that we couldn't get around that blocked a section of the boardwalk.
Oh, and we got some more seeds into the garden this afternoon as well. Productive day.
Mine:
She wanted a thousand dollars
For her prized pure bred dog,
But upon closer inspection
It was just a hairy log
I find it fascinating that everyone I know who has a car talks about cleaning it out every few months. I get the impression that the car is somehow seen as a place to put things that you don't know what to do with exactly. It seems... odd :)
ReplyDeleteWell, there's definitely a lot of confusion going on in your poem today! I do wonder if she still got her thousand dollars though....
The knock-off
The sun's rays were shattered into a thousand whirling fragments as the steel louvres adjusted on the outside of the buildings. They detected heat and the direction of the light and opened or closed to provide shadow to the rooms the windows below them illuminated. A bird, disturbed by the light-show, rose up from a topiaried bush, wings beating harshly against the still morning air, a single cry of irritation breaking lose from its throat. For a moment its shadow interfered with a detector and a louvre paused in its tracks, but then the moment passed and the machinery continued inexorably on.
Luanda Delacoeur stood on the rooftop listening to the creak and groan of cables under tension and metal expanding in the increasing heat of the day. It was 23 degrees already and not yet seven o'clock: the long hot days of the Siesta decade were a period when climate change was denied to its face and a strange lethargy infected the previous frenetic Western hemisphere. Her high heels were beige, the heels pointed to deliberately shred and tear the carpet anywhere she walked, and her attitude was similarly spiky. She was wearing a Contour-Dress; fabric run through with metallic threads and tiny chips that formed a synthetic brain. It was beige as well, constrasting with her bleached skin, and maintained a constant image of how she should be seen from every angle, adjusted folds, creases and unseen structural elements to ensure that that was what happened.
The bird flew past her, and her eyes tracked it like a hungry snake. Only when it was gone, a black dot in the endless blue of the sky, did she look back down. At her feet was a length of rubber hose, a black coil like the tail of a rat. One end fed into the intake of the air-conditioning units that covered the roof; the other was attached to a rack of tall, black metal cylinders, each looking heavy and reinforced; strange chimneys in a sere, industrial landscape. On each cylinder was a stencilled red legend: CO.
"Time to sleep, fuckers," she murmured, and gripped the green-painted wheel-valves, each hand turning. There was no sound, but the hose tensed, growing turgid, as the gas poured through. "This is the last time you'll tell me I'm too old for a role."
[I realise you might not quite see the connection with the title: this is knock-off Ballard :)]
Greg -- cleaning out your car means taking out all the gunk and trash and dust that accumulates over time. Part of it is the floor needs vacuuming because you bring in dirt on your shoes and in a snowy place, you bring in the sand, gravel, and salt used to melt the snow and ice. Part of it is the flat surfaces accumulate dust over time. And if you have children, they drop stuff, mostly trash, in the car all the time.
ReplyDelete===============
Pretty sure it's the real thing, made in France
Unusual logo and all
Simply lovely and oh so soft
Exactly why does the inside tag
Say 'Made in China'?
Greg - mostly it's garbage collecting from food wrappers and tissues and the like. But also dirt from (mostly) the kids shoes and general dustiness (particularly on the dashboard for some reason).
ReplyDeleteYou know what? I was too caught up in your descriptions and story to notice that I wasn't aware of how it connected to the prompt until you pointed it out :P
So... well done!
Morganna - ah, yes, I see you've beaten me to the explanation. Not a difficult task, but still :)
I feel like this just a line away from being an acrostic for PURSES, but I still quite like it as is. That final line made me smile :)