(inter-states, sub-ways, under-passes, etc.)
yet another leg or vein
of the so-called anti-hero’s journey to nowhere.
(ongoing, ingoing, outgoing, etc.)
fell in with some strangers,
traded life with some drifters,
spent a little time in an echo chamber
out on the steps of the art anti-museum.
these were a few of the unconventional couples
I met milling around afterwards in the depot:
the count and the countless.
the blood and the bloodless.
the bird and the birdless.
the face and the faceless.
milling around outside the depot,
spiraling around in the winter air emptiness,
splints and shards of conversation
bubbling up from the executed conventions:
“no, madame, I didn’t know them.”
“I didn’t have enough time to count them.”
“the bulk aisle tends to have the best deals these days.”
“he was a rickety fellow, brittle beyond his relatively few years.”
“indeed, I believe her name used to be nancy, before she changed it to nathalie.”
“nathan claims that she regarded samuel beckett as a personal friend.”
“well, that wasn’t as difficult as people sometimes make it out to be.”
“some of them had said, in essence: ‘enough of this underground movement.’”
“well where else was there to move then?”
“use your imagination, sir, please.”
“the future generations depend on the tiniest thing being collapsed down into an even tinier thing.”
“don’t agree with that, but whatever.”
“don’t agree with your assessment, but whatever.”
“any hotel rooms around here for under 25 dollars?”
“what sort of dream world have you been milling around in?”
“a pretty conventional one- there doesn’t appear to be any question about it.”
“call the count back in here-”
“sorry, sir, he’s already left.”
“with his mistress?”
“the countless?”
“I don’t know what her name is.”
“no one does, sir- most people just call her the countless.”
“but she’s with the count, isn’t she?”
“that remains relatively unclear, sir.”
“what about the blood?”
“yeah, she also disappeared down into the subway.”
“was bloodless still tagging along with her?”
“it appeared that way, sir.”
“and the birds?”
“hard to say, sir.”
“the faces?”
“same answer.”
yet another nameless moment tucked away
to review at more leisure later.
one of them always counting,
the other one perpetually refusing to do so.
an odd intertwining of centuries,
DNA-matrix inspired or otherwise.
formal clothing, slightly frayed,
on this particular leg or limb of the journey.
(ongoing, offloading, downpouring, etc.)
