Tamederness

Douglas Park

Dryer than dust thunderstorm lightning bolt strikes used up, drained out and baked hard former swamp marsh flood plain flatts. Electrocution-charge knocks dent into parched, barren, fallow and arable waste-ground plateau, leaving behind gaping bombsite road-works crater chasm, final resting-place commemoration, where visitation fell and lay down. Brief exposure to rapidly accelerated weathering and erosion, scores out bottomless-pit, akin to colossal unclad human footprint. Shoe or boot-sole outline shaped coastal banks surround marina. Instinct-led dowsing, divining, and excavation eats away and digs deep, plumbing hitherto untold depths -until struck and tapped spring and well rises up, rushing to fill basin to brim. Billowing waves come ashore, importing with them salvaged ballast of dislodged out and dredged up bottled ships and messages, left behind, washed up and stranded onto dry land when tide goes back -beached flasks release contents: fleet turns around, launches and sets sail; scrolls unfold, roll out and flutter, to recite and announce their news. Broken surface settles again: great rocks rear their heads, bump together and gouge bar cages out of each other; barbed-razor-wire high-security fence bushes, creepers, shrubbery, vin-yards and tumbleweeds crop up abundantly; harpoon, gin-trap and manacle ball-and-chain fish, cattle and fowl, leisurely roam, graze, hunt and nest at will; life-belt clad sea-mine ice-bergs come up for air, their shark tail fins, submarine periscopes and scuba-diver snorkels slowly stir about in one repetitive circle after another.

Overnight, sapling dowel posts shoot up into timber-beam mast tree-trunks, crutches to prop, shoulder and take full brunt of elevated upright ascending aqueduct ramps, which rest, slide, climb, stack and scale upon balustrades, each player having to stay one step ahead of the other, just to keep up with the pace. Movably floating jetty pier bridge allows easy crossing from any end or side to another. High-pressure forcible propulsion grants liberated water-table new-found freedom to ride on backs of chutes. Torrential rainstorm downpour windfalls and offshoots, gone overboard, are never cast by wayside -because, grand-rapid cascades: freeze into unmeltable icicles; petrify into stalactites; granulate into crystals; ripen into precious metal ores; and evolve into ingots. Eventually becoming heavy enough to come loose and drop off, caught and retrieved by eager bracket fungi sieve drip tray pans, breaking their fall. Downstairs, in basement vaults, refridgerating pack-ice glacia mines are broken off by the lump. Overhead monorail cable-cars carry burning hail-stone snow-ball and frozen ember spark products. Wafting air-borne unclearable misty cloud-formations (with aromatic perfume scented fragrance) veil from view steeple spire quest towards unattainable pinnacle summit peaks by gothic cathedral pagoda skyscrapers. In time with advancing march-of-progress, pylon rigs acquire and develop taste for stairs, handrails, balconies, verandas, mouse-holes, archways, window-boxes and hanging-gardens, underneath straw haystack thatched cupola-dome castellated turret-roof head-gear.

©Douglas Park