Eyeful

 

Strange bird that optometrist, finding it exceedingly difficult to look a man in the eye. Cornered by his apparatus. Rapid anticipation in the converse — a firing range, watch out those bullets whizzing overhead. Does he shave the scone every morning? Mustard trousers he had worn on the last appointment, and not outside the realms the one before that four years ago, Wednesdays maybe... Would not be too difficult to check. Tall, good trim. Gay you’d guess, without the protective pics with his daughters over the desk. In the papers after one of those sudden tragic losses there would be no way back here, no braving it and continuing for this eye doc. Good finally to at least manage the quip with the Westcoast receptionist in his hearing. Biden? With Bernie outta the picture?… She decided she would let it blow over… Shelter in place for now?… (Plenty supercell in those gathering clouds of course, no joke.)

Sinophile (Aug25)

 

Blasted again in the lane by the advertising meteor on the side of the truck. The sudden blaze made one wince and shield the eyes. There was a strip show on offer a few blocks away, if one so desired. Others seemed to sit unflinching. (Other days the giant construction vehicles creaked by, with the worry of a disaffected driver at the wheel. There were Innumerable reasons for disaffection just now.) The Asian girls entering the cafe were far more alluring than whatever that dimly glimpsed image showed on the truck; even in the case of fashionably dressed girls, whose inner beauty was sometimes masked. Later in the evening on Swanston one of the older homeless ladies had gathered a strange circle of three young Asian lads each with their girl. A Christian group perhaps; there had been many examples of street missionary activity of that kind up on the Equator. The group sat in a semicircle around the woman, who had her back against the wall of the shop. The lady was addressing them, while they sat quietly listening. Earlier on the lane at the usual outdoor table a long piece on ABC had reported the Pentagon propaganda against the Chinese during the roll out of the vax, which had resulted in an unknown number of deaths, in the Philippines in particular. That central stretch of Swanston from Victoria down to Bourke and even Collins Streets had in latter years become heavily Chinese; a recent feature were the buskers drawing an audience for Mandarin lounge numbers. It might become difficult now to co-opt expats, even with the most sophisticated disinformation.

Fitting

Guy reading… Looked very much like  verse on the first pass. At Brunetti’s.  Up on a high stool in the first inner section. Thick-set; middle-aged; balding. Confirmed on the return collecting the order. Nylon biz shirt. Pleasant smile at the unexpected attention. The request obligingly met with a cover reveal. Oh! Bukowski. Sketched figure on a fancy grunge layout. Ah. That explained it. Even Google quickly corrected the typo. Tolerable, flavoursome rebel, wouldn’t hurt a fly. The techno beat wouldn’t interfere scanning those lines, while the chap hung for a bit waiting for his companion. Cuddly boozer to accompany the $5+ coffees & $15 vin quart filled glasses. Mostly new immigrants flocking to join the hard-won high life.

Accounting (of the dead)

 

The Rafa missile landing on the tent camps, described later by the Israeli PM as a tragic mistake, caused mid-30 deaths, two hundred and forty injured, in early reports. (Unknown whether the missile was the one the former Republican candidate Nikki Haley had scrawled with the message, FINISH THEM.) In the PNG landslide the numbers slid upward from low hundreds to multiple thousands, before a later report suggested the figure might have been greatly over-estimated.  A Melbourne Jewish singer in a news report in the morning’s paper contested the term “children” in counting of the dead in Gaza. If early & mid-teens were given guns by their elders—reprehensible parenting implied—could such be classified as children? 

Another report reminded of the comment from an award-winning NYT journalist from the period of the Iraq invasion. Rousing the troops to the mission, the advice to the American soldiers entering Iraqi houses with guns drawn was to tell the inhabitants, Suck on this. (Estimates of two hundred thousand Iraqi casualties had been suggested in some reports of the time.)

Performance (Nov24)

 

We all walked past the chap in Elizabeth Street as if it were a performance piece. Was he for real? It didn’t matter so much either way, he was gotten by without too much trouble. Full stretch, with nothing under his head. A trembling hand covered his eyes, some small tattoos possibly on the fingers. Shaking more than trembling, as were his feet. Was he actually begging, for coin? There didn’t seem to be any receptacle. There were all kinds of postures among the men and women along Swanston & Elizabeth, many of them striking, impossible to ignore even for the most hardened hearts. More striking many of the beggars than beautiful women, fancy cars or the window displays. Beautiful young Asians predominated along those streets in an array of dress, often simple, but strongly alluring. Half a century ago their mothers & grandmothers had appeared in newsreels hardly distinguishable from each other, just as our drab new Slav immigrants had been, lacking any kind of feminine adornment. At Brunetti’s in Flinders Lane the ladies were more polished and Turtle and some of the other ambulant beggars managed exchanges almost like passing the time of day.

Turtle

Call of Nature

After six months of fuul it was time for a change at Faisal’s. Last week one of the other diners was seen with a plate of addas  before them. Ah, yes! Of course. Good idea. That day however F. had run out of the lentils it must have been. Eventful street this afternoon with half a dozen cops landing for some unknown reason. More eventful still when a woman who was thought to be a Sudanese first stopped at the table seeking coin for food, she said. Loud, abrasive, unable to be denied. After the $2 placed in her palm she went onto the Ethiope table further along, where the old Greek gave her plenty to go on with when she tried the same thing with her. A rasping loud voice from that lady that sounded male at first and brought apologies from the beggar. Toward the end of the addas the girl returned again, this time pleading something that was not clear in the first instant. Even when she hitched up her top it was also not clear. Must have been a skirt she was wearing that she could quickly raise and that was enough for her. When you gotta pee, you gotta pee. There was no hiss or splash. A hand on the table-top to steady herself, with an apology that was squeezed in. A thought to remove indoors was let slide; something like a startled rabbit in the headlights effect operating. By the time she was finished a good puddle resulted. At the register later when Faisal was informed the correction came: the girl was not Sudanese; she was Ethiopian, arrived in the country as an orphan without family. What else? Perhaps mid-20s. During her squat she had mentioned homelessness and they making you homeless. Later she came again to ask and again on leaving  from down on the pavement just past the Viet Bottle-o. When she was denied a second time she told you to fuck off then, the little pat on her head meaning nothing to her. The young twelve year old who had knifed the woman in the apartments on the next corner had been an Islander of some kind, probably about the same skin tone and no doubt same family situation.

 

 

The Roman Playwright Terence (May26)

 

The other notables & political perverts across the globe are junior grade pretenders by comparison, hardly worth a dime. The Deutschers always did/always will outstrip them all, by a veritable country mile.

Orange man’s golden showers? Completely passé. 

Jimmy Joyce’s suggested coprophilia? Well, that was kept strictly within the matrimonial sphere. 

Bill being served beneath the desk while weighing missile launches hinged on the button, which of course an intelligent & responsible enough leader had no intention of pressing just there & then.

Breaking news. Be the judge yourself—

 

https://www.timesnownews.com/world/europe/martin-neumaier-germanys-fdp-politician-from-ostalb-seen-in-disturbing-video-licking-public-toilet-article-110157254/amp

 

(More compelling without the CCTV supplied; and, like the others, valuable for understanding our fellows of the species.)

 

 

 

 

NB. Terence’s best-known line of course was, “I am human, and think nothing human alien to me”.