more..

The player will show in this paragraph

or Napoleon

Fire

The fire was started by a spark
igniting coconut husk
fiber in a cushion maker’s house.

Several people die each year on country roads.
Returning inebriated from taverns,
body heat depleted by alcohol,
they are drawn to warm macadam.
They lie down.
Four out of five drivers stop.
Some are run over more than once.

The fire was started by a spark
igniting coconut husk
fiber in a cushion maker’s house.

They applaud as the hearse drives by.
Victim’s father witnesses the execution,
fulfilling the promise of the day
his son was buried.

The fire was started by a spark
igniting coconut husk
fiber in a cushion maker’s house.

Archbishop orders fiftyfour Templars
burned at the stake
for retracting confessions.
Bearded man stops at the center of the bridge.
He is assigned to the work crews.
He watches two infants and a woman
placed on a grill
over a firey pit.

The fire was started by a spark
igniting coconut husk
fiber in a cushion maker’s house.

First published in The Quarterly
C 1989

Download PDF from bend of bay press

But this new sound. This new threat. Was it a threat? Can a spider hear? If a spider cannot hear, then what is the sound? A threat. What will happen?

And now there is silence. Now it is quiet again. Was it the wind? If the wind wouldn’t his web have moved as well? If the wind? Can the wind blow in layers? Or is there something nearby unseen that blocks the wind that shields the web from the wind. That would not be a good thing either, because wasn’t it the wind that brought food to him? That brought insects to him. Wasn’t it the wind? And if it were true that it was the wind that did these things, that brought food to him, then how did he know this? How can a spider come to know these things. He is a spider. How could he come to know? And more to the point how could a spider come to reason and then to worry? To stress, to have stress?

Why should he have stress?  If the web fails, he will build another. Quickly. It has never been a problem before. He has never wanted for food, even once, ever before. There is no reason to worry for food, nor for his web. He had built it well and the wind had stopped. He had built it well and the sound had stopped. If it was the wind. If it wasn’t for example a creature. A creature that had stopped. A creature that intended to continue, whose sole purpose was to collapse the web. It could be. But what did this concern him? Why did he worry? Why did he worry about things irrespective of their likelihood of happening? Why did he worry about things that had quick, easy, straightforward solutions? He did that a great deal. He could not control himself. Look at me trembling. Why can’t I get this under control? I am spider, for God’s sake. A spider. A spider is not supposed to worry. A spider, an insect. And a spider as an insect is not supposed to have a worry in the world. Look at us. We have been around, in roughly the same form, for millions of years. We are close to invincible. Most of us die of old age. Very few die unnatural deaths no matter what the catastrophe. The day after a conflagration, who is it you see first? Us. Building webs between the charred remnants of trees ready to capture what is blown across the now desolate landscape that a day before had been a lush forest or thriving neighborhood. And even in his own case. Look below: The collapsed webs. What was here before. Here, nearly. Barely recalled. If he could not remember the one then really how bad could it have been and so what was the point of worrying about it now. That is something he needs to work on. There is the sound again. With all the time spent idling in the web it was easy to let his imagination get away from him and permit imagined fears to take over. If a spider has imagination. Does a spider have imagination? He is a spider. There are other, better things to do with his time. He could for example just try to relax. Think positive thoughts.  Or at least not go on and on about things that might happen to him, things over which he had no control. That is what he could do. He is a spider. That is what I spider should do. That is what a spider does.

visit

More information for readers.

More on PROJECT: Finnegans Wake

Proof

(Rules as as a PDF)