Dissolving Solids
“You would not recognize me. Mine is the face that blooms in the mirrors of dank washrooms as you grope for the light switch.”
-- Donald Justice
Recently, I was having a battle with something that television commercials politely refer to as “household odors”. I think it started when one of my cats fell into the toilet while on his way up and out the bathroom window. A lot of clean water sloshed and spilled back behind the toilet. Living alone, I don’t spend more time cleaning than what’s necessary to keep my place sanitary enough to survive in. So the place behind the fixture probably doesn’t get scrubbed as often as that area does in many family homes. When that spot got soaked, the funk of the ages began wafting up to haunt me. My entire house smelled like the men’s room at a Texaco gas station in Yuma.
On three occasions over three days, I scrubbed back there. Eventually, the god of olfactory unpleasantries retreated to Mount Olympus, where he no doubt is not among those at the feast. The final step was to purchase a large box of baking soda to leave open on the floor behind the porcelain. While at the store, I also decided to buy a solid air freshener. The bright green gelatinous substance inside smelled strong and sweet, like watermelon candy.
Over days and weeks, I wondered how long the air freshener would last. Would I need to replace it? Would it simply lose its scent? Should I try some other ‘flavors’? Yesterday, I picked it up, moving things around as I watered a plant. I was surprised to see that the solid substance had mostly disappeared. It was dissolving into nothing. I’m not used to seeing solids dissolve into the air. It struck me as somehow nightmarish. Broad, curving swaths of the stuff were simply missing. There was something macabre about it. There was a hard white plastic core up the middle. Decaying flesh hanging off a skeleton.
That night I dreamed that I was fighting with some kind of magician. He was wearing a tuxedo. We were in a small room with a tiled floor. We struggled and wrestled. Eventually, I struck a massive blow to the top of his head. He fell to the ground and compacted himself into a metallic sphere about the size of a tennis ball. All of his features and clothing were represented across the surface of the sphere. I put the sphere into my mouth and went outside to show my friends. They were on a veranda, overlooking the countryside at sunset. I felt the sphere begin to shrink and dissolve in my mouth. I spat it into my palm. It continued to dissolve into the air, decaying the way the solid air freshener did. I got on a small airplane and flew to Yuma. There was trouble with the plane after we landed. The people I was traveling with told me that I would need to get a ride home with a man who had been the comptroller for a bookshop where I worked for a short while. The man is currently a piano student of mine. He’s a very nice guy and a dedicated student of music. He’s one of the few men I know who wears cologne. It’s something old school, like Old Spice. I’m always aware of the strong, pleasant scent when I’m teaching his piano lesson.
Eventually we will all be dissolving solids.
“When god lets my body be
From each brave eye shall sprout a tree
fruit that dangles therefrom
the purpled world will dance upon
Between my lips which did sing
a rose shall beget the spring
that maidens whom passion wastes
will lay between their little breasts
My strong fingers beneath the snow
Into strenuous birds shall go
my love walking in the grass
their wings will touch with her face
and all the while shall my heart be
With the bulge and nuzzle of the sea”
-- e.e. cummings
-- Donald Justice
Recently, I was having a battle with something that television commercials politely refer to as “household odors”. I think it started when one of my cats fell into the toilet while on his way up and out the bathroom window. A lot of clean water sloshed and spilled back behind the toilet. Living alone, I don’t spend more time cleaning than what’s necessary to keep my place sanitary enough to survive in. So the place behind the fixture probably doesn’t get scrubbed as often as that area does in many family homes. When that spot got soaked, the funk of the ages began wafting up to haunt me. My entire house smelled like the men’s room at a Texaco gas station in Yuma.
On three occasions over three days, I scrubbed back there. Eventually, the god of olfactory unpleasantries retreated to Mount Olympus, where he no doubt is not among those at the feast. The final step was to purchase a large box of baking soda to leave open on the floor behind the porcelain. While at the store, I also decided to buy a solid air freshener. The bright green gelatinous substance inside smelled strong and sweet, like watermelon candy.
Over days and weeks, I wondered how long the air freshener would last. Would I need to replace it? Would it simply lose its scent? Should I try some other ‘flavors’? Yesterday, I picked it up, moving things around as I watered a plant. I was surprised to see that the solid substance had mostly disappeared. It was dissolving into nothing. I’m not used to seeing solids dissolve into the air. It struck me as somehow nightmarish. Broad, curving swaths of the stuff were simply missing. There was something macabre about it. There was a hard white plastic core up the middle. Decaying flesh hanging off a skeleton.
That night I dreamed that I was fighting with some kind of magician. He was wearing a tuxedo. We were in a small room with a tiled floor. We struggled and wrestled. Eventually, I struck a massive blow to the top of his head. He fell to the ground and compacted himself into a metallic sphere about the size of a tennis ball. All of his features and clothing were represented across the surface of the sphere. I put the sphere into my mouth and went outside to show my friends. They were on a veranda, overlooking the countryside at sunset. I felt the sphere begin to shrink and dissolve in my mouth. I spat it into my palm. It continued to dissolve into the air, decaying the way the solid air freshener did. I got on a small airplane and flew to Yuma. There was trouble with the plane after we landed. The people I was traveling with told me that I would need to get a ride home with a man who had been the comptroller for a bookshop where I worked for a short while. The man is currently a piano student of mine. He’s a very nice guy and a dedicated student of music. He’s one of the few men I know who wears cologne. It’s something old school, like Old Spice. I’m always aware of the strong, pleasant scent when I’m teaching his piano lesson.
Eventually we will all be dissolving solids.
“When god lets my body be
From each brave eye shall sprout a tree
fruit that dangles therefrom
the purpled world will dance upon
Between my lips which did sing
a rose shall beget the spring
that maidens whom passion wastes
will lay between their little breasts
My strong fingers beneath the snow
Into strenuous birds shall go
my love walking in the grass
their wings will touch with her face
and all the while shall my heart be
With the bulge and nuzzle of the sea”
-- e.e. cummings
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