Part 12: DIM GREEN

As a Girl and a Man
Dim Green
Pahn is Lying in Plaid
Copper Wire
The Gods' Library
Otherworld Canyon
A Bird and a Flower
Egairia Seen in a Store (on the way to Minnesota)
The Kahkahdrohm
.

As a Girl and a Man

Pahn and Aiks have come to stay

 in a house in Turkey

(which he keeps confusing with Spain)

To get there they have driven steep

 gravel and dirt roads through woods

and at some point snow

(which he remembers driving through before

though it may have been  a movie            or photographs)

At the house    

 it is mostly bare     and rather odd shaped

 inside               There is hardly any

furniture

and the light has a greenish hue 

For a while

Pahn and Aiks are alone

but soon

                the old man who owns

the house     comes in with his wife

     who is unconscious 

His wife is a small shrub

that is withered

and has many small holes

  in her trunk    where the bark has died 

The old man asks Pahn

if he can help her             (knowing

 that Pahn is good   

with plants) Pahn says

that he can’t

get to the heart without breaking

the stem             and he is afraid that breaking

the stem will destroy her      

He says

to put her roots in water

                                     and wait and see…             …Later

he looks over

to the counter where she is

   and she has begun to sprout

leaves on some of the branches 

Pahn considers pruning

the branches           that do not have leaves

but upon closer inspection             he sees

      that they also have         live buds   Soon

she turns into an old woman            

and wakes up…

…Pahn is a little girl             and

she leaves            

the house looking

                        for the airport              She doesn’t know

which way to go        but thinks

perhaps she might find it anyway…

…She arrives  

at the building             (airport? city hotel?)

and after wandering

around a while             she happens

upon a suitcase that appears

to be empty

(earlier she had been bemoaning

 the fact that they only had backpacks

 not real suitcases)

While she is inspecting it

discovering            

  that it is also   actually   a backpack after all

a couple comes along             and says

it is theirs             subtly

implying that she was stealing it 

         They also say

that is has

some important medicine

that the wife needs 

Instead of reprimanding             the man

changes tone and suggests

that the three of them

could have some kind of sex 

but Pahn             as this little girl

                                                says

 that she doesn’t want sex

and leaves

and goes downstairs and outside  

Outside the hotel     Pahn

 is now an adult man again

and he is thinking

that actually he does

want to have sex

but not with the man…

…Back at the house

there is a cousin

or nephew

or brother            

      of the old man who is now

in an alcoholic stupor—

they take him outside

 (in the snow?)

and somehow he is revived

 

He is thirsty and debates

whether he wants

    a drink of water

 or alcohol  finally

    he decides

that he doesn’t need alcohol

and chooses water

 

He tries to drink from a puddle

and through the eyes of Pahn                 he sees

fish swimming there …

The Gods' Library

…Pahn is walking in coastal

                                                   woodland of tall thin trees

and bright shade       looking

           across a small canyon  

He stumbles

down to a creek        and as he follows it

A woman resembling a sister          hastily

                        dams it

                            with brush

  and mud        like a beaver…

…Pahn             and Aiks             are under

 the reservoir talking

She says

it is fifteen feet deep  

Pahn     reaches                up            to the surface

            to measure     and just         touches               the air

saying

          it must only   be     eight feet          deep

 

He remembers the ocean nearby

He has a sense of a high

                                              thin waterfall

that feeds this creek …

 …He is in the gods’ private library

                                                      with Juna

            It is a crowded cross

between a library of the 19^th

              century          and a beatniks

apartment

                         reminiscent

of that coastal forest

in its haphazard

organization

Pahn is looking at a section

                 of books  complaining

that they are arranged

                       alphabetically             rather

than by subject          

            He is thinking

that the government books

                                  that list landforms              intentionally

                                                                              leave out

the features that are on

                                                  private property 

Juna points

          to one book

and Pahn says            that one

                                                  is his

taking it off the shelf

and tucking it

                   under his arm      

Otherworld Canyon

Pahn is by himself in a cabin

in his favorite otherworld canyon        looking

through private treasures

from his past with former lovers           He finds

a catalogue

of inflatable boats

and chooses two…

…He is with Aiks in a water store      talking

to a saleswoman

(who reminds him vaguely of Ahstrild)

They try out

boats in the flooded aisles

that lead to

open

water

 

They are trying        to decide among

the boats in stock

which two they should buy      Aiks

has chosen one       and Pahn

goes back to the cabin

to bring and show 

one that he has chosen

but Aiks points out

the flaws in his craft

and they choose another—

they try to determine if it has a motor

and Pahn is reminded

of another pretty saleswoman

he has spoken to earlier…

                       …at the sales counter    

Pahn has chosen a toy                         

boat full of chicken soup

The man at the counter gives Pahn

                   part of the carcass       but tells Pahn

                     he might want to throw it away

               to avoid the bones 

Pahn puts it in the soup

 anyway

saying                         that he always finds

bones in chicken soup

and he just spits them out

  

  Pahn bites into                                           

           the piece of carcass    and immediately

             finds small bones      which he spits

back onto the soup                            

        in a small pile                                      

and picks off

with his fingers…

…Pahn and Aiks are with Lakhehsis

in a theme park              or shopping center     they walk

 through gardens       and natural displays           At some point

 they are told      to move on      for some reason

by a female security guard    or employee—something

 involving water

 

Aiks and Lakhehsis go on ahead

and soon Pahn sees them

by a sycamore tree     growing out over a large pool 

with a ghost of Yahpehtos       Pahn joins them

and climbs the sycamore      where he breaks off dead 

branches 

The security person comes over       and tells Pahn

that he shouldn’t be up there   but Pahn tells her

that he felt compelled              to clean up the dead

branches in the tree

and that he is an arborist     so its OK 

She tolerates him                     and leaves  

Pahn sees from the tree      in the near distance

a beautiful pool

by a glass window

  of a building

 and walks there with Aiks 

 

Aiks becomes Ahstrild                                 

and comments on how      alluring the water is

and finally    as it is getting dusky      Ahstrild    says

in her girlish defiance

she is going in      even if it isn’t allowed 

Pahn imagines

how cold it is                  and says

that it reminds him of lakes

in the mountains

but what it really reminds him of

                        is a mountain

                      river

flowing

through granite

potholes

Ahstrild prods him    to go in

and finally         he decides to brave it 

Jake Gyllenhaal

and a friend   are sitting on a ledge

next to the window 

Pahn takes off his shirt

and wants    to throw it over to the ledge

but is afraid that  it will get

                                                    wet

 

He calls over to Jake                                                

asking him to make sure   that it doesn’t

fall in the water      and Jake

gets in  and swims

 into the middle 

Pahn throws his shirt

dipping it in the water in the process                          

and jumps in

 

It isn’t as cold as he thought…

…Later Jake                                                  

and friend      recount

trying to swim in an asylum/zoo

and looking for crazy women             wandering

 in their reconstructed habitats—

open

fields                

grassy pens

with casual

keepers…

…Pahn is in the store            in the building

behind the glass window                                          

and sees a series

of containers            like tennis ball containers 

with labels that tell the sequence of  who

        has shown whom    his cabin in his favorite 

otherworld canyon—Steinbeck

showed it to Claudette Colbert 

Claudette showed it to Clark Gable

and after a while

someone showed it to Aiks

and Aiks showed it to Jake…

…after the asylum

after the zoo

      after the swim

after Jake

and the store

but we don’t remember when

At some point      they are in

the city at night      on a road in Italy

 trying to find

a petrol station                                  

that Pahn remembers

                 in front of another building

and Pahn isn’t sure         what to call its color

if it is the red                                          

or the brown                        

or the orange                       

          of Max Lüscher’s color test …