And Brush

(This is the most recent piece in a project that begins here)

Today I hear the cello
Today I want to hear the cello, so I hear it
Today I am deaf
Everything is an abstract of something past
In deafness, I realise the data is received
Is recorded
Somewhere it is recorded and filed
The file deposited in a chute that once closed ejects the sheaf of paper out into the air
I follow one as it falls until I can’t distinguish it against the ground

— I listened. Closely. I used to listen.
The Beast sits opposite her across the table
Returns his head to look forward
She holds a glass of water
The liquid is still, motionless
— I know what I listened to. I can hear it. I can see where I listened.
Inhale
— I don’t know where those places are. I’ve never been there. The memories of the sounds, the constant noise of the freeway, I’ve never lived near a freeway.
Blink
Lips part
Exhale
— I’ve never been that close, walked by a freeway.
Looks up, eye contact with the Beast
— It’s not the same as the city. I think.
He is still
— I don’t know.

Along the buildings, down by the corners where the walls meet the pavement
Then between the rooftops
An invisible cocoon woven in threads
Reaching out fingers to drag against the unseen fabric
The sound of skin scraping against fiber
The night absorbing the sound
Replicating it along the wires of woven threads
Repeating and changing it
Changed again
Birds meandering on rooftops ignoring the sound as it passes
The Visitors ignoring the sound
Some hearing for a moment then dismissing
I can make the sound of the cello
Almost
It sets itself in the streets, the hard surface
Lingering then departing in a reverberant tail
Blocks away where the sound dies, the threads of the cocoon repeat it

The Woman walks across the irregular stone
Her path is set parallel to a canyon on one side
To the other side the sparse scrub and brush punctuates the rock and sand
It is either dawn or dusk
The dark seeps from the shadows as much as the light merges with it
Air a fraction warmer than neutral
She slows and stops
Stands
Closes her eyes
When she inhales, she draws in air slowly
Continues beyond the instinct to exhale
Ribs expand
Air compressing slightly in the lungs
It swirls for a moment inside her
Then release
Air flowing at a constant rate from the nostrils
Open eyes
Force exerted in the muscles of the spine
Torsion
The shoulders turn to the side
From waist to thighs to calves to ankles to feet
Her body follows, turns
She walks toward the canyon
Slows as she approaches the rough irregular edge
The curving faces of the canyon walls change colour to pale red
She falls
In the air her body rotates
On one side the blur of the red rock wall
On the other, the open space of the canyon
She looks up
The sky darkens
Stars emerge and sweep across her vision
Then fade as a glow emerges to erase them until it too fades
The stars emerge again, moving
Her descent slows
Body slowly rotates so that her feet set down on the ground
Her weight slowly gathers on her ankles and then she stands
The hollow sound of air moving through the canyon
Several paces in-front of her, a body falls quickly through the air and strikes the ground
The earth around the body crumples like cloth
It begins to sink into the ground as the folds of the earth close around the shapes of its form
Then stillness
Nothing
Nothing
Another body falls
From somewhere distant in the canyon, she hears a faint shout
Turns her body
Begins to walk
Some moments later there is another sound of a thump
She walks
Begins to raise her arm as she approaches
Hand loose at the wrist, hanging
Wrist above the lever of the door handle
Muscles relax
Weight down on the handle
Exertion of force
The door opens
Inside a woman stands in the centre of the living room
She faces the door
Her eyes are open, their surface black
— | – Dear?
Her head pans slightly
Then back
— | – Dear…
The Woman steps into the apartment and continues her slow walk
As she passes, she raises one hand to touch the woman’s shoulder
A moment of half embrasure
Hands clasped
Fingers entwined
Released
She continues past her to the kitchen
The sound of her foot-falls changes as it strikes tile
Reach up for the cupboard door
Exertion of force
Open
Hand swung towards upturned glasses