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pt I
Norris had wanted a pony. Norris did not get a pony. The next lesson was this: George Washington crosses the Potomac. So Norris went home. He lived in a forgotten place where people often paused to feel wretched. Reasons for feeling wretched: 1 syphilis 2 lies 3 onslaught of biscuits Norris spent his life alone. He slept in a chimney. The chimney was usually depicted, on post cards and in promotional pamphlets, with bright balloons rising out of the flue. The balloons were held together with chewed-up celery and wallpaper paste. The smell of them coming over the hill had a tendency to create large abdominal gashes in anyone close enough to detect their arrival. It seemed people could not remember when the balloons had first splashed ashore, or why. Of course, people tend not to remember things they do not like. They can buy new emotions at the supermarket and eat them for breakfast. pt II
Norris had a slide projector. He liked to look at slides of snowflakes. Norris projected the snowflakes out of his chimney and onto the bellies of passing blimps. But blimps did not fly over very often. That is just how wretched the place was. pt III
Norris keeps waking up in another dream. He is walking through an orchard of trumpets. He looks down to see his feet covered with deceased worms. Someone has woven their bodies into a pair of stockings. Norris is not sure what to think. The trumpets seem erotic, but they were not meant that way. Now the worms are better. Norris gobbles them up. |