MECHANISM OF THE YELLOW CHAIR
I once saw a machine whose purpose was to
represent a yellow chair
that exploded into four pieces which flew
out into four corners and then
reassembled
into a yellow chair.
The machine was hidden in the black background.
The machine embraced the pieces and flung them about.
The machine was hidden and flung the yellow chair into pieces.
The pieces rejoined. The machine rejoined them.
In the midst of an autopsy I have always made a point
to tell the funniest joke I know and also to make Doc Walker
explain again the parts of the brain as he slices through them.
I tell him that the machine makes representations
of a yellow chair. I ask him if he can show me how
to put the yellow chair back together again
after the big show of flinging it all around.
He tells me the brain weighs this many grams.
He shows me the corpus callosum. The beautiful medulla
oblongata.
represent a yellow chair
that exploded into four pieces which flew
out into four corners and then
reassembled
into a yellow chair.
The machine was hidden in the black background.
The machine embraced the pieces and flung them about.
The machine was hidden and flung the yellow chair into pieces.
The pieces rejoined. The machine rejoined them.
In the midst of an autopsy I have always made a point
to tell the funniest joke I know and also to make Doc Walker
explain again the parts of the brain as he slices through them.
I tell him that the machine makes representations
of a yellow chair. I ask him if he can show me how
to put the yellow chair back together again
after the big show of flinging it all around.
He tells me the brain weighs this many grams.
He shows me the corpus callosum. The beautiful medulla
oblongata.
posted by tearful dishwasher at 10:02 PM
2 Comments:
well, this is serendipity. a few months back i was experimenting with a 3D program and did a series of 'chairs', and i'll be damned if two of them couldn't be right from this poem...
yellow chair
which is really
god's chair
and that's how i read this poem, scott. chair's are symbols of authority, i.e., 'the seat of peter', 'the seat of government'- and while the chair shreds and disassembles life and every living creature, it also has the power to make whole again while still glorying in its parts- hey, maybe god is like doc walker, fascinated by the pieces of his own creation....
k.
Karen-
My god I love those chairs! Icons of chairness. Very cool.
This poem, in a simple way, asks the question again-
is the soul in the body? Can science locate the seat of the soul?
Maybe not, but it's pretty to look inside.
God is the machine, the chair the ten thousand things,
we are the watcher, Doc is the scientist, Doc is the machine, God is the watcher, We are the God, the ten thousand things are the scientist, and etc.
I dunno.
But it feels damn good to write a poem again.
Thanks for sharing your view and your work, Karen.
Really enjoyed both.
all the best-
Scott
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