“The Shadow that trots behind us is definitely four footed…”
I went away for a couple of weeks recently (hence the quiet time on my blog). As I was leaving my apartment at 4am to catch the S Bahn to the airport, I realised I had forgotten to empty my rubbish. Making a quick journey + flight departure time assessment, I realised that I could not pause to find a torch and take it down and out into the backyard so – I shut the door and left.
Upon my return, a noon-twilight in my very hot and well sealed flat was cast by a dark net curtain of flies humming expectantly beneath drawn blinds (many lay gasping on the floor, whether through heatstroke or simply a natural closure to their life cycle I do not know) – a trail of small droppings laced around bloated belly rubbish bags.
One hour and much pine green liquid making improbable claims to shininess later, order was restored; though for the next two mornings, a hopeful trail of pooh has stretched across not as sparkly as promised expanses to the place where the rubbish bags used to squat.
The whole episode made me think of the theme of my work, how the wild(erness) is so close beneath our feet: in concrete gullies and utility channels behind white walls, waiting for the ripe aroma that says order has collapsed and is decaying.
I have brought a ‘capture not kill’ trap in the hope of becoming acquainted with my little visitor; it sits primed in my kitchen with a cartoon like lump of yellow cheese complete with holes. I imagine my visitor to be a mouse: it will be my friend and I may even build a special sculpture to keep it entertained. It brings to mind my favourite literary mouse in Froth on the Daydream (Boris Vian): gamely scrubbing paws down to fragile lace like knuckles in a noble but ultimately futile attempt to polish dimming tiles in a sick and decaying household.
I hope that my mouse, if I ever get to meet him, will be a much happier one. But then again I have wondered whilst looking at the evidence of my night time visitors, does anyone know, do cockroaches pooh…?
