HEARTBEAT:
I turn on my side, form an electro space blooper
drooping to the next beat, an unseen needle —
imagine an auto tune bzzzz
“bzzzzzzzzzzzzz bzzzzzzzzz” moving up-down– wavelike
pitch moving like a shard of iron, leaping to magnetic pole.
magnificent leap
leaving a trace from the
north pole
downwards.
North pole an octopus. Out of sight. We go there now: Up.
Above the grid |
ingredients to get here: platoons | patrons | students
butterflying through the door onto my classroom wall.
We are having an interview. This is the setting:
a piano behind me. There is a television monitor on the piano, minding.
STUDENTS:
Will you tell us about the molten metal ocean?
HEARTBEAT:
You are sitting across from me. My students, hi.
Look out the window a second: do you see the space between heart
palpitations? I don’t think you do. This is where I begin. Ba ba grrrrr ouu
paah.
Sizzle sizzle. Hand chooses hand heart beater. You left your
lunch in the fridge
and now
you’re
here.
Listen. Let
me tell you
about sound.
I ain’t
trying to
teach
you shit,
but listen
here.
STUDENTS:
He was talking a lot, so we imagined a molten metal ocean. (in our ears?)
(no)
Metal waves the color of black cardboard on fire
wish woosh iron washers
sitting on the shoreline. We
threw our anxieties into the waves and took off our shirts.
The octopus a.k.a
our teacher,
the north pole heartbeat,
had cut ten million holes in the sky with his sonic tentacles, and the sun was pouring down through the holes in the atmosphere,
a waterfall in the sky.
Golden rivers pumping into the black metal waves. The sight was wicked.
HEARTBEAT:
young people know
sound is what happens in between We’re throwing out the metronome
What’s it good for? The platoons are marching
on the beach chop chop We are growing trees
on your city
What can you hear in that? (open your ears) *nothing*
Nothing is right. That’s right. Now let me tell you about Bill:
STUDENTS:
Molten black water far as the eye can see
seep heartseeps bleep bleeeeep seeper.
The skies were clearly full of gold—
how mysterious the earth was again.
More questions in the air than normal.
We looked up, and saw the gold falling fast through the holes
HEARTBEAT:
(lecture mode becomes a new earth science):
One day Bill came to my gold house and started playing his gold horn
He played so loud the spirit flew out the window like water and grew a forest outside my house
Now this is true
What we did was we went outside and ran through the forest looking for platoons
We found dumbbells and beer cans and a lot of government broomsticks
No toons
The best part was we found plans for the symphony playing at Carnegie Hall later that day and so we flew to Carnegie Hall in the afternoon to see what was up
We got there in our suits
We looked good
Fresh out of the drums and the piano, no sweating all hot and shit
No one mopped us and we walked into the auditorium and took our place on stage
Like that’s what happened man
No lying here
I took a seat behind the drums and Bill took a seat by the piano and we rocked the hall and we rocked it all the way back to the forest
STUDENTS:
underneath us the iron sand was raging
hot.
lucky we had our towels, otherwise we
would have burned our skin and probably our bones.
But we had our towels.
heartbeat still beating on and on and on
so we got up and moved toward the molten metal waves. We had this eager energy hard to disobey.
HEARTBEAT:
by the time Bill and I got back, our trees were taller than skyscrapers,
our sound slithering in soil,
and it took a while to find my house.
I was pretty low after that.
All that rocking took me down.
Long set, high energy Anway, that’s the beat end of it.
You follow that grease between pulses.
No metronome. Who brought a metronome
with them?
Toss it.
STUDENTS:
Possible the magnet pulled us, but we refused to believe it was waiting in the water an octopus when for so long it had been the city on the hill behind us. The earth was mysterious. The poles had flipped. We wanted a swim.
HEARTBEAT:
Ba da baa grahhh. Hop hop
hop. Molten sensor your hands
We’re grooving now
who wants a go?
Here’s the piano
Drop your heart
inside let it beat.
We’re
grooving now
Don’t let them tell you
your ears.
I’m telling you this
ain’t shit.
STUDENTS:
(a final memento)
We moved to the waves of molten metal lapping the shore. We wanted to take it all in a minute. Imagine the octopus watching us. Someone said, “We made it.” And I said, “This is it.” The heat of the waves and the heat of the light piercing the sky made us itchy. We started rubbing our skin and hopping about. Then it became clear we were running out of time. We couldn’t wait forever. We held hands. Heard a voice cry out over the molten metal ocean. “Take off your souls and leave them on the beach.” And so we performed this task with quick dignity, and soon we were naked. Then a force pulled us into the ocean. We held our hands as the molten metal reached up our bodies to our necks. And just before I went under, I turned back to the beach. I saw the shoreline crowded with transparent forms. Not quite ghosts. Not quite bodies. A field of magnetic souls guarding the ocean. I melted into ocean.