Obituary: I | Museum-Quality Art Print

when we speak of these things we employ too much rhetoric even flawed grammar at all costs simply to confuse the listener and so the love of descriptive writing material forced by a plot too thin shifts the focus to severing rather than connecting for example when elderly janitors smoke while swapping market opinions during the linen change at a boarding dorm three cigarette-burnt arms rest on a cracked tea-colored table beside a red pleated skirt and a rust-stained engagement ring those women walking uneasily conceal unwashed fears of remaining pure no periods not even commas let us continue let us continue continue to speak of unrelated matters as if we never cared about anything the man I regarded as my teacher has turned to dirt to a kind of wormlike white substance in the soil unstained like insect eggs and though he has discussed too many things he hasn’t stopped lecturing in my mind from damp cliffside caves to warm dry fences his voice his fingerprint let me quote please play this song on the day of my funeral let them know parts of my preferences but not the whole prepare fragrant teabags meaningless ciphers healthy upbeat gestures and irregular glances when they fall silent call each of my friends to bid me farewell if they are still alive as for feathers broken nails dead watches handle them with care I closed the book held my breath and listened as he added like this when they fall silent announce my death and so by reciting all the titles and dates of Michelangelo’s works those who knew him fell into memory as if amniotic fluid had been swapped out at birth and in those moments it becomes hard not to feel a kind of guilt-shaped void
posting an obituary is like posting a job ad but no one comes because everywhere people are building bridges with fish-smelling cement and steel overflowing though no one realizes no one sees that the river in our hearts has long run dry no longer casting soft and shadowed wetness and those tree trunks we once touched if closely examined still bear the carving:
"the world dies and love ends"
begin to adjust your breathing shave erratically wrap the body in dense musical foam and sink into a pond choked with lilies bury spirit and blur like the cicada nymph asleep inside the stinktree outside the childhood home and when his eyes finally closed that line was deciphered by archaeologists psychologists astronomers translators historians the line that read:
"bring a flashlight"
"it’s dark ahead"
the well-read couldn’t make sense of it the hall turned chaotic the scholars trembled with interpretations only his small child remained sitting on a lavishly carved bench
and wept
poetry
in place of speech

当我们谈论这件事的时候，会采用过多的修辞甚至错误的语法不惜一切代价仅仅为了迷惑谈话对象
因此热爱描述性文字材料迫于剧情过于单薄便使得重点转移至「切断」并非「连接」，例如寄宿制公寓换洗亚麻地毯时年迈清洁员们抽起烟来，交换对于近日股价意见，有三处遭到烟头烫伤的胳膊摆放在裂痕茶色桌面，红色褶皱丰富短裙以及掉落的锈迹斑斑订婚戒指，那些女人们步行着，坎坷不安地掩饰着未遭磨灭的纯洁的恐惧。不要加句号，甚至不需要逗号让我们继续让我们继续，继续谈论毫不相干的事情好似我们从来不对任何事情抱有顾虑，那个被我视为老师的人已然成为泥土，泥土中类似于蚯蚓或者昆虫洁白之卵般无垢的物质，谈到过太多事情的他目前还未停止在我脑海的演说，从海崖旁内嵌的潮湿洞穴到干燥温暖的篱笆，都有他的话语和指痕，让我引用：「请在葬礼之日播放这首歌曲，让他们知道我部分的爱好，但不必知晓全貌，准备一些芬芳的茶包和没有含义的暗号——包含一些健康明快的肢体动作以及错落有致的眼神，在他们都安静下来后，令我的好友一一前来，同我作别——如果他们还活着的话……关于羽毛，断掉的指甲，没电的手表请帮我妥善处理」我合上书本屏住呼吸听他讲话，他补充道：「像这样，当他们安静下来，便请开始宣布我的死亡」于是于是，借助背诵米开朗琪罗所有作品名称时间，与他有关的人们全部深陷回忆之中，好像替换了他们出生时包裹身体的羊水一般，当这些时刻到来，我想实在很难不感到一种似于内疚的虚无之感。
张贴讣告好似张贴招聘但是无人前来，仅仅因为世界各地都在拼尽全力建造大桥，沾满鱼腥味的水泥和钢筋目不暇接尽管没有人意识到，没有人发觉出我们的心之河流早已干涸。不再落下湿润而默密的阴影那些曾经被我们的手触摸的树干，如果仔细观看上面雕刻痕迹可以发现：
「世界死亡而恋情终结」
开始调整呼吸胡乱剃须让全身遮覆绵密音乐泡泡，随后浸泡于睡莲密布池底，潜藏精神和其中恍惚不安，如故乡楼下那棵臭椿树里昏睡的蝉之幼虫一般
他的双眸合上的时候，那行字终于被考古学家、心理学家、天体学家、翻译家、历史学家破译出来：
「带上手电」
「前面很黑」
饱读诗书的人们摸不到头脑，四处骚动着，整个大厅乱作一团
只剩他那年幼的孩子坐在装饰华丽的长椅上
哀愁地用眼泪作诗