Not until we are lost do we begin to find ourselves--
Henry David Thoreau

Monday, February 25, 2013

nonsensical lines. the writing practice.


I have been on a wondrous voyage that has kept me from writing to you.  Now I find myself stricken by some sad common illness and my prancing about has come to a halt.  As it should, for now is the time to recount the months since your last letter.  Erving has been a doll, having three pups of his own to care for he has somehow found space in his heart and room on his financial teat to support me.  I’ve met a young man named Clyde and while I don’t much like the male species and quite truthfully am disgusted by testicles, Clyde and Erving have shown me that not all males are created equal.  Ah, but perhaps I’m jumping ahead.  Such a little field mouse I am.  Let me start at the beginning of things.

                I came to these dreary neck of the woods to do one thing: find the elixir of life.  Yes how very common place you might say, how very prosaic but I have never been one for imagination and rather merely find myself the owner of a body in a body of recycled tales.  That was of course until I met a peculiar mushroom named “Wang-Fun”.  Fear not, I did not consume this little fellow as you might assume because how else would I deduce a name such as “Wang-Fun” but truthfully it was written as plainly as I write to you.  These letters, “Wang-Fun” were painted on a little sign beside the most blue of objects.  Fearful of anything foreign, especially Asian, I thought not to approach Wang-Fun.  And yet there was a certain draw, a certain need even to converse with this strange little creature.  I did as any sane mouse would and logged down the details of Wang-Fun’s location and returned to my office to mull over my peculiar stirrings.  As I sat upon my rubble mound called “thinking chair” I pondered.  Clyde was soon about and questioning me with his one good eye.  I try not to stare directly at him because I think he feels inadequate having only one eye.  Mostly however, I fear his blue, blue eye is too big, and deep and infinite for a small mind like me.  I only came for the elixir of life not the purpose of it. 

“What now you be pondering?” he asked gruffly

“A blue mushroom called Wang-Fun”

“Wang-Fun at the bottom of the hill?  Wang-Fun blue radiant?”

“Yes”

“Hrm” he responded and laid himself down by my feet.  He started licking his paws.

“You know anything about him?”
“Everything”

I waited for him to elaborate but Clyde had clearly finished talking.  I prodded him, “What is everything?”

Clyde rolled his one eye, “You expect me to tell that to you in just one lifetime?  You’ve got a lot of patience to grow” he chuckled.

“I can’t get that mushroom off my mind”
“Join the club”
“What is it about Wang-Fun that makes me want to know him?”
“What is it about anything that makes us want to know everything?”
Clyde was getting heavy again.  I didn’t like when he got all heady, I felt out of my league, 10000 below.  A drowned mouse at the bottom of a milk bucket.

 

No comments: