Solomon, the reassembling skeleton, is a character in my novella-poem
"Sludge White and the Seven Curmudgeons". originally encountered in
the Curmudgeons' cottage, he fled when a raccoon scrambled his bones.
later in the tale, while taking tea with Mary the banshee, he is invited
to accompany her to the cottage in order to help the Curmudgeons stave
off the machinations of the needy queen. though he agreed to tag along,
he expressed reservations (pointing out that, ever since he'd come out of
the closet, he'd had endless bother just keeping himself stacked).
over the last few days i've been writing a scene that gives Solomon a chance to
display his reassembling technique. since that sort of thing doesn't happen every
day, i thought i'd share it. the scene is joined in progress, as the Curmudgeons
attempt to rescue Lumpy, Pally and Gramps from an altered dimension, through a
flickering emerald window conjured by Guanyin, the wise woman from the east...
********
amidst the confusion Gropey
crept to the frame
teetering on his toes to
peer inside,
tipping while tugging at something
cumbersome
that suddenly came loose and
started to slide.
and rolling in a ball that
picked up speed
as their somersaults
nearly attained perfection,
Gropey clumped in Lumpy plowed into
Solomon
scattering bones in
every direction.
"oh, bother!" his
jawbone dolefully exclaimed
from the jostling jumble
struggling on the rug,
where squirming vertebrae
aspired to fuse
and humorous femurs
exchanged a stiff hug.
erecting a sort of
leapfrogging ladders
clacking and scraping and oozing
graveyard dust,
a rickety scaffolding
reared itself up
as everyone looked on, transfixed
with disgust.
a procession of unhinged
appendages
hauled themselves into a
chorus line shuffle
thumping hollow tones on
makeshift xylophones,
saddling the spine with a
creaking kerfuffle.
as the rattling rib cage
slowly unfolded
it squeezed out a
wheezing, torturous sound,
reminiscent of croaking
accordions
or flatulent ghosts
haunting frack-riddled ground.
sockets interlocked in
spindly symmetry
rigging up a sinewy
Chinese puzzle
in a dangling homage to
rotting tissues,
lapsed ligaments, and
memories of muscle.
kindred clicking digits
emulated Zen
with their grim union of
astral adhesion,
fostering factions of
festering phalanxes
in synchronized,
disjointed cohesion.
the whole contraption spun
from centrifugal force
settling rigid grooves in slippery
sync,
enabling his penchant for
jiggling gestures
and the latent leaning to
shimmy and slink.
and crowning the feat with a nauseating crunch
the skull was scooped up
and plunked into place.
as Solomon coughed and
spit out a maggot,
a winsome, fractured grin unfastened his face.
********
(thus endeth the excerpt - Evan Hawthorn, the 25th of July, 2015)
