opening the mnemonic[]
by Christopher J. Bradley
4/23/2003 3:56:27 AM
For those who know
The title flared and phased away
An alarm clock flickers in his iris
He sits up to the vidphone
With a prostitute black silked at his side
He makes a bad attempt to bargain with his fixer
Gate crashing protesters revolt as he wades
In and through the shields and batons of riot cops
A silence counterpoints in the lobby
Twin girls and his head refracted in a fish bowl
In an elevator he unwraps a fake cigarette pack
The dial whizzes past red digital digits
While the gigabyte expander taps his mind
The doors open and he squares off
Delivering a nonexistent pizza to armed research defects
He jacks into a minidisc and they feed him the data
Three images click click click
The minds eye opens and he’s in the bathroom
A nosebleed into a chrome sink reflects mirrored
Laser flare – The motion sensor trips
Canceled Tai Chi becomes re-arrangement of the towel rack
They enter the room with trauma guns
Blue anime shrieks with the meeting of lead and red plasma
The laser whip cuts fingers and color photo fax
A bald head meets steel piping crashing to bathtub marble
Those left clear him a tight path to the door
In the elevator Johnny dons a Lennon wig rose colored lenses and a topcoat
It’s a quick step back past the fishbowl
No more twins – A quick turn – He’s back in the riots
The NAS signs flood like driftweeds into the China night
The plane arrives on a Jersey industrial runway
The digital inspector reads his implant as dyslexia prosthetic
It knows that it is seeping
A deadly consequence of his masking of the truth.