Indiana
1
Oiled field
burns high in Indiana on
Stray husks
of soy
The fire
spreads out of its bounds
emigrated
from 200 yards beyond
the House
and the Barn. In the heat, the Drug Lab separates from
The
Trailer, against the law of trailer burn up first fast and total,
has split
in 3
This
aftmost piece: A rocket shaped backarcwise over the grove in
green and
orange onto Hwy 150: the solid
skimming
along the center line, the liquid retarring
the
surface, the gas lamping out for elements
to sustain
it
2
The forward
cabin: Spit from the Trailer, Kenny and Richard's personal palace suite off the
Lab ("even temperatured” like Bob Biscuit had promised)
with a family-room-extra-bath-kitchen,
sets off spinning like a top.
A handleless
head eating weeds and worthy
Bump askew
on the locust trunk
bounces off
to blotch a tiled diagonal for 210 feet
bores a
final signature. This any boy
would recognize on July 5th, who barefoots
hungrily
through his backdoor to savor last night's damage from his
upsidedown
Taiwanese helicopter.
A stump! and lift six inches high, now bound on a
vector between House and Barn
3
Amidships: Die
Hard I and III, Dr.
No, Live and Let Die; Thunder Road and Two Lane Blacktop;
eight-tracks of Jan and Dean, the Everlys and Isleys plus tapes and CDs of the
Doobies and Dire Straits and Buffett despooled, spaghettied, smashed,
splintered. It’s like a drunk
tattooist has pierced the microwave control panel, couch, Barcalounger and
fridge door
A yellowed
wedge - "Jan and Dea'' - harpoons the drawing Kenny's Mindy
made two
years ago: the House with a tree on each side and no horizon present (the 13th
century not dawned in her 3rd grade art teacher's world). His Debbie stands in an apron in the
foreground with Darinda. Mindy and Mandy are at the apex of a sunny swing chair
on the porch, Kenny by his open truck door
In the
corner behind the fridge, Richard spilled rotated, washed up, cracked up in the
liesure cabin. Centrifugal hot flashings have whipped Richard’s current
temperature up to 102 during his Indiana ride.
A sudden
electrostatic burst takes over the bolted-down entertainment center
and HBO's
10:00pm movie shows the Drug Advisor's kids in Traffic when they are
playing casino: spinning H roulette in the bathroom and snorting an eight-ball
in their easy chairs.
Speakers
connected via S-video to Richard’s amp vivid away, but Richard can't hear, what
with the throb and the crackle of his ribs and neck; a knee might be broken,
too.
The weed
ingested 90 minutes ago slows his appreciation. Dryshock constricts
his
throat. The meth of 45 minutes ago
speeds his breathing and panic to a
heartrate
of 145, his eyes dilated, he rivets onto Erica Chrisomethin, the blonde of the moment on the E! Network
and Entertainment Tonight – the hardiest fare in Southern Indiana.
Wary to
check his head after being bopped by Karo and balsamic bottles
down from
out of the cabinets just above his final resting place here – does
he have
honest head gashes? And how deep?
4
Flashback
19 seconds: Kenny is asleep with Mandy when a noise starts.
Debbie
dreams of a crashing ocean wave drowning her spool bed. Darinda sleeps with her doll entourage
down the hall.
The wheeze
of the second Trailer section has become a scream. It is Frisbeeing through the slumbering bushes between the
Barn and the House. Alarmed,
Debbie stiffens to rise up in the bed, but, wrapped in her gown, she has become
a torqued Slinky hooked head and foot on the brass bed rails. With the shrieking wave migrating past,
she untangles and dismounts to get Darinda out of the shuddering house. She takes her dead-eyed daughter from
the corner bedroom corner clutching a Barbie.
Kenny waits
near the landing. Mandy speeds by, going down the stairs with Mindy bundled up. Debbie and child are right behind –all
moving past the shattering north window.
Shards of
bare sticks off the shrubbery are peppering in, now striking Kenny in the
triceps and shoulderblade. Shotgun
in hand, Kenny jumps past.
"Get down!" and "Downstairs! ... Now! ... I’ll meet you
by the Truck.” Kenny hits the
bottom step of the Pantry exit – a burst a crack and a fireball shoots back
from the Frisbee toward the Barn.
5
By the
Truck Debbie’s screaming for Richard.
By the light of the Barn fire, Kenny knows the the Weedwhacker will
flame up at any moment so Richard’s a goner if he hasn’t already burned up in
the Flying Lab or the Beaker. The Barn and Road residue will inform on them. “You
see that fire, Debbie? Last I saw, Richard was in that, trying to catch up on a
batch of CoQ10. The chemicals will
tell on us! He’s gone up in a teardrop, sweetie. Please just come with us! We love you -- get in the car with us –
for our Darinda.”
Kenny backs
up the Truck from behind the House, hits the Road turning right to Evansville
to hop a Mississippi barge south. Two explosions behind them, Darinda sees out
the back. Craning, Mandy catches a
ring of fire spring up over the two House they loved. Metal siding, shattered myrtle branches rain on the hood.
“Our Ark,” he thinks.
