Part 11: TECTONIC TOUCH

Walking in an Abandoned House
Losing Sehrahahl
Round House
Djuturna's Embrace
Naked Aiks
Little Lakes Valley
With Djuturna
Tectonic Touch
Ahnaheeta (invocation)
Ahnaheeta's Bath
Acknowledgement
Ahnaheeta's City Streets
Forest House
Big Blueberries
Tsunami of Dancer's Coals
Buttermilk Country
Pahn's Consort
Ahpsahla's Bog
Pholoa (invocation)
What Pahn Needs
An Outing with Aiks
An Inner Skin
An interuption
A Woman Resembling Zhoonev
Wizard
.

Walking in an Abandoned House (June)

In      a scattered             residential

neighborhood

            of a small town

sparse

            and dark

            old and weedy

Pahn and Phaithohn       are thinking of Lakhehsis’ house

The house has been bulldozed

                                                            removed

There is raw dirt        

                     and large sheets of detritus

                 and a depression

                                             like a fallen-in basement

      Pahn and Phaithohn walk around it

                        looking for scraps of what it was

Pahn speaks with     Phaithohn and Aiks

Pahn doesn’t understand why

                                                            the house

                                                                                    was bulldozed

                        and why nothing was recovered from it first

Phaithohn and Aiks say that there was nothing of Pahn’s in it

            so it wouldn’t matter to him

but he remembers to them

                        that his grandmother’s cabinet

was there

            and it matched the buffet

                            in Nomioss’ house

                                    and he would have liked to have it…

                        …they have brought back the house from the air

                                                but it is empty

Pahn remembers a possible basement—

                                    searching the halls he finds

                        two bedrooms that he hadn’t seen earlier

            and didn’t remember

He finds a                          

black   

             cotton-voile   

                                                            pleated see-through                  (blouse?)

He imagines that a couple has been there—

There are couples that like to have sex

in abandoned houses

like in a field

            but less open

     sheltered

            but not locked

     out of view

          and almost safe

                                                            but not belonging to anyone

There is a freedom in it

                                    and a comfort

            temporary

                                    but memorable

                    new and different

in the context of an unknown history

Perhaps to make love is to entangle      someone

in the context

                                                of an abandoned past?

After a while there is wallpaper

                                                            and a little furniture

It is intricate and dark

                                                            reminding Pahn of Russian folk art

He comments on Lakhehsis’ taste

(which is nothing like her taste in another place)

It is interesting

                    He is comfortable with it

          It draws him in

                                                                        makes him feel like he has found

                                                                                                       something

                                    He leaves the bedroom for the living room

  and finds                         

                        the owner of the black cotton voile

                  walking in from the kitchen

Her shoulder skin       

                        is exposed

                and her legs are naked

                     and her midriff shows

                           and her thin black frill

                                                                evokes sex

                                     He is fascinated

              that a sense of sex would have walked

                                                                                    into this house

                                                            uninvited

                                    and having nothing to do with him

He doesn’t know                                                  

 what the other members of the family

         think of it—                                        

He is unnerved                                                     

     but interested

                                    welcoming

Losing Sehrahahl

…In a town

                          east of

                                                    east of the Gold Rush

                                    made of old

                                                            dry wood

                                    Pahn and Jim Carrey                                                            

                        wander about the town                                    

                            with Sehrahahl

Jim leaves for a while                                       

and Pahn finds Sehrahahl

                                                            in small rooms

                                                and closets

    and when they meet                     

they hold each other…

…After a while

Jim comes back                                        

and Pahn knows Sehrahahl belongs

                                                            with him

so Pahn tells her to go with him                              

and they hug goodbye                                              

Pahn feels devastated

short of breath

hurt

bereaved

Pahn walks around the hotel                                        

finding pocket change                                     

in all the rooms

 finally gold dollars                                     

from the 19^th century

                     and around the corner                                     

outside

he finds a purse                                    

fallen open                                           

with papers sliding out

           

Pahn begins to look at the papers                         

hoping to find out how long                            

it may have been there                   

 but he decides

he’d better not touch anything              

in case the woman has been kidnapped

   and the purse might have fingerprints

                                           or other evidence

He goes away to get help                               

then returns                                                                  

but he never finds out                                              

what happened                        

to the purse’s owner

                                    When Pahn begins to wake up

he realizes

that the feeling of loss

            when he left Sehrahahl—

the way it made his body feel

was the same       as how

                                    often he feels

when he wakes up

                                    in the morning

                                    And this is a revelation to him

                                   

            that the pain

                                          of loss resides permanently

                                                      in his body

 

Round House

.

Levitating
from bed
Pahn floats

Along the side of the old
house

The center decomposing
ceremonially round
and filled
with moonlit ash

Djuturna appears
large
and lying
across the monument
fish-like

For a moment Pahn is close
to her blue-grey thigh
soft
in the denim
of coastal hills

the inside of it
crowding out his field
of vision

He pets
and calms

the outer edges
dissolving peacefully
beside the cotton
cloudy warmth
.

.

Djuturna's Embrace

.

Moving away from the boss
and the outer
into a warehouse
with new laws and objects
assuring the last labor
before stopping early

Pahn arrives at the fete
meandering
through the talking bodies
on his way away

Djuturna
walks out of the forest of crowd
and wraps him
like no other

His arms and hands
on her shoulders
and in the curve of her back

no space between them
as if their skeletons fit

.

.

Naked Aiks

                                    …Pahn is on a high bank of

            a large river or lake

It appears to be very deep

without obstructions                 

or submerged objects…                                            

…Pahn is swimming with Daphnis                       

                                                and Eeunks

in unexpected currents near                

the banks of before             

There are granite rocks                            

that they touch with their feet—  

Pahn instructs Daphnis                                               

how shallow it is despite                     

not being able to see the bottom

“Don’t dive”

Pahn swims under to see                                                     

            wondering                                                                   

if it is safe to open his eyes                                       

and raises his lids to                                      

rocks                                                   

roots                                                   

water-plants                                        

murk                                                   

He comes up and climbs the bank                

to find                                                  

treasure?                                 

detritus?                                  

the materials of                        

construction?

He sees what he thinks is a man coming                 

and runs from him                              

but as the man approaches                              

   he sees it is                                                                           

in fact a woman or                                            

at least

it is a woman chasing him 

She is dismayed that he runs…                                            

…Eeunks comes by and tells Pahn                                             

that Aiks is waiting for him in                                 

              the bedroom

                                                           

    “with rabbit-fur thighs”                                

He imagines her inner thighs     and thinks                    

she wants to have sex                                              

Pahn runs to her hotel                                                          

     to her small room        removed                                  

                                    of all furniture

and she lies bare                                        

on the floor beneath           

                                    a quilt

Pahn wonders if          it wouldn’t                                              

                        be more comfortable

                        above the quilt

                                    in the mild air

                        and walks

                                                to close the blinds

but feeling unappealingly                                       

dirty

      he goes to the shower      hoping                         

that she will be awake                         

when                                       

he comes back