Some of the neighbors have Vietnamese singing kites, from which they
attach hooks and razor-wire, so to duel above the neighborhood, standing
on the roofs of the houses and listening to the shrieking descent of
wounded kites falling back to the earth, scraps of rice paper and
ribbons like spilled fuselage as the little kids down at the park try to
shoot the victor out of the sky with pump-action bb guns. unfortunately,
not all pedestrians in the neighborhood are aware of what takes place
above their heads (mostly post-Chicago kids who dropped out of the
university and don’t think to look up), and when a broken mass of metal
edges falls out of the sky with a horrible muscle-locking squeal,
sometimes that can confuse a person, and not everybody gets out of the
way in time. Me, I have a glorious violet umbrella with a Robert Fludd
designed cosmogram in ultramarine, dark enough that you have to get
close to see it, at which distance you might notice the mesh armor sewn
into the bottom. Should anyone ever decide to shoot arrows at me, I’m
ready.
(12:13.05.19.2005) [/ana] #