Beautiful Disaster
I Have To Close My Eyes To Think (A Practice in Concrete Imagery)
I have to close my eyes to think
Because the visual stimuli is too distracting
I stare at a wall and I see the blue paint covering white dry wall
With its imperfections,
Scratches made every time someone leans back too far in the chair
A few rises from holes that were spackled but not properly sanded
The story of a lifetime…on one blue wall.
Not to mention the trinkets, baubles, and posters that hang from that wall
A painting from high school that was pretty impressive
Favorite quotes
And a whiteboard to work out complex homework assignments
In front of the wall, a small side table that has been transformed into a TV table
With leopard print duct tape along the sides to give it “personality”
With a 22” RCA perched on top
When I close my eyes, those things disappear
And I am left with only auditory stimuli
The whirring of the fan
Mixed with the traffic rushing by as wheels pound pavement at
35…40…45…50 miles per hour.
The clanging of trucks pulling tractors behind them
A variety of different kinds of birds, each sounding off their own
Tweet, chirp, or whistle
And even my own noises
The clackering of keys
The heavy sighs and deep breathes
And the pounding of my heart
It is asinine to expect the world to become blank and silence
So that my brain might not be distracted
And yet, I can imagine even in utter silence
In a white room with white walls and no other furniture
I would still become distracted by the creaking and grinding of the mechanisms within me
Because the visual stimuli is too distracting
I stare at a wall and I see the blue paint covering white dry wall
With its imperfections,
Scratches made every time someone leans back too far in the chair
A few rises from holes that were spackled but not properly sanded
The story of a lifetime…on one blue wall.
Not to mention the trinkets, baubles, and posters that hang from that wall
A painting from high school that was pretty impressive
Favorite quotes
And a whiteboard to work out complex homework assignments
In front of the wall, a small side table that has been transformed into a TV table
With leopard print duct tape along the sides to give it “personality”
With a 22” RCA perched on top
When I close my eyes, those things disappear
And I am left with only auditory stimuli
The whirring of the fan
Mixed with the traffic rushing by as wheels pound pavement at
35…40…45…50 miles per hour.
The clanging of trucks pulling tractors behind them
A variety of different kinds of birds, each sounding off their own
Tweet, chirp, or whistle
And even my own noises
The clackering of keys
The heavy sighs and deep breathes
And the pounding of my heart
It is asinine to expect the world to become blank and silence
So that my brain might not be distracted
And yet, I can imagine even in utter silence
In a white room with white walls and no other furniture
I would still become distracted by the creaking and grinding of the mechanisms within me
