Black Sabbath lives!

[icecreamemperor]

So tonight was the Black Sabbath "Paranoid" Mashed Poetics show, and (almost) all you fuckers missed it which sucks for you because it was metal. Definitely one of the best poetry-related shows I've been to in ages, though really the star was the band -- they were remarkably on-point and pretty much destroyed the tiny little venue. Trevor wisely played his own solos instead of aping the album and Tony Iommi can eat his heart out because they were as smoking as the riffs. There were even some totally-plastered metal fans who would occasionally leap around violently on the otherwise empty dance floor! My only regret was not doing more headbanging -- I've been meaning to cut my hair for something like two years and for once the procrastination would have paid off.

My piece -- which ended up being like six pages long -- was not a disaster, though being sick did not help my elocution. I would have liked to have another week to edit/rewrite it but oh well I wouldn't have written it at all if not for the show.

For posterity here is the poem as performed:



Introduction

The documents that I am about to read to you have been compiled in an attempt to understand his vengeance. That there has been an act of vengeance is the only thing we know for certain. The shape, the nature, and the origin of his revenge remain unclear.
Gathered from various sources, these artifacts are a first step; our first effort, here in the aftermath, to understand what it is that the Iron Man has done to us.

[The private journals of the Iron Man were recovered soon after his disappearance. They were found in a pile near his desk, concealed by an enormous pile of empty pizza boxes.]

from the journals of the Iron Man
excerpt one

This one time I forgot to do the laundry
and so I travelled back in time
to tell myself to do the laundry, already

I was completely out of socks
and only that one Hard Rock Cafe t-shirt
that Shirley bought for me in Tokyo
I mean, it was bad

But when I got there
back in time
everyone had been replaced by dogs
with long faces
they were all over the place
barking and also
weeping
in human voices
up and down the street

and I forgot that I was not also a dog
and I tried to bark and weep, but it was no use
and I tried so hard that I just got heavier and heavier until eventually
I couldn't move at all
and I stood there in the street and the dogs
went up and down

A few days later it was no longer the past, and I could move again
unfortunately everyone was still
replaced by dogs.

--

[The following interview was given several years after the Iron Man retired from public life. Its publication was suppressed as the result of government pressure. A tape of the interview was found in the Iron Man’s apartment. The identity of the interviewer remains unknown.]

an unpublished Vanity Fair interview

I: So how did it start, I mean how did you start – travelling in time

IM: Well it was just a natural aptitude, I guess, you know I was good at it.

I: exceptional

IM: That’s what they said, but I mean I never thought too much of it they asked me to go and I just kind of went it never seemed like a big deal

I: But you were the first

IM: No no not the first just—

I: My notes say the first, the first man to travel in time

IM: No, not the first – I was just the first one to make it back.


from the journals of the Iron Man
excerpt two

the first time I travelled to the past
I was surprised
by how heavy things were
my feet sunk into the pavement
the sound of birds singing rattled my teeth like a passing train
even the light was heavier than usual
like tiny raindrops bruising your eyes
whenever you looked at things
a woman walking through the park
in her yellow sundress
blinded me
in one eye

it was difficult to move
but I made it to a nearby bar
the scientists had given me money
and a gun
which I had left behind
on account of its incredible weight.

After three days in the bar
flirting with the pretty German waitress
the bombing started
I ran outside with the waitress
just as they began to fall

because of their enormous weight
the bombs were not exploding
instead they fell through the ground
like it was paper
and continued like this
all the way to the center of the earth
shooting up great geysers of steam
eventually
lava began to pour out of the holes
like dozens of tiny volcanos
and everything started to burn

At this point I was feeling much lighter
so light in fact that after awhile the waitress
was dragging me after her like a balloon
I was hoping that eventually I would get light enough
to carry both of us away
from the sky I imagined that the lava
would look like the petals of flowers
red and orange blooming
among the streets of the city

I think her name was Klara.

--

I: in previous interviews you sometimes speak of heaviness in relation to time travel, could you expand on that?

IM: yes heaviness its difficult to describe impossible actually

I: but if you could make an attempt I’m sure the public would appreciate—

IM: I’m not much for words you know

I: a summary then, surely it’s not—

IM: imagine that all of your limbs could suddenly drown the way your whole body can drown then imagine that they have that your hands and your feet and your arms and your legs have all drowned and you are carrying them around with you all these drowned parts of yourself that you cannot leave behind instead you go on carrying them

I: ah so a metaphor then

IM: call it what you want


from the journals of the Iron Man
excerpt three

the old lady at the laundromat no longer recognizes me
the grey-haired scientist at the lab no longer recognizes me
the dog that lives next door no longer recognizes me
the check-out lady at the pharmacy
the bartender at the Irish pub
the woman they send to clean my apartment
no longer
the songs on the radio no longer recognize me
the clothes in my dresser my dresser my bedroom this city

my mother no longer recognizes my
voice on the phone
my father no longer recognizes my
childhood memories
my days no longer recognize me my nights no longer recognize me my face in the mirror my metal skin my hands holding the knife carefully slicing a lemon the mist condensing on the surface of the cutting board no longer

not even the past

--

I: well it sounds terrible. Is that why you retired, the heaviness?

IM: Oh no the heaviness you get used to after awhile just a trick of the trade

I: But there has been a lot of speculation around your retirement – government cutbacks, personal grudges – that there was some sort of incident

IM: there were always incidents in fact you could say that was my job, to create incidents

I: well yes I suppose but surely not just any incidents you were on our side, you were fighting the fight, doing good things

IM: all sorts of things you know from the inside every day looks much the same

I: so it was a lack of patriotism, then

IM: patriotism what does that word mean I don’t know you look so young perhaps things were different for your generation but for us the past was an accident that we were trying to avoid my job was to make the accident different worse or better was not the thing patriotism was not the thing
different was the thing

I: well difference has to count for something

IM: I suppose but you know from the inside every difference looks much the same

I: but still that’s no reason to quit

IM: I don’t see why I needed a reason a man gets tired

I: but what about us what about the people counting on you you know I was just a kid I remember what it was like every day every day opening our history books looking for the changes like a dime store mystery novel it was exciting it made everyone so hopeful to think of it somebody back there setting things right what about that what about all your fans

IM: there’s no need to take it personally

I: how else am I supposed to take it you gave us relief and then took it away and now what – what are we supposed to do with the past its like a dead tree just sitting there nothing changes any more we’re just stuck with it stuck with our families and our habits its like everything in a straight line going forward its interminable how can we even move in this

IM: yes well at least you are beginning to understand

I: understand what?

IM: drowning


The Iron Man speaks of vengeance

The most important thing is to leave a mark
In following that instruction I would say
I have made several mistakes

It is difficult sometimes to recognize
to be recognized
difficult, too,
to be in the midst of things

That is how it should be with revenge
everything becomes part of it
the described things
and the undescribed too

revenge is difficult to recognize
it is always turning away
so that you cannot say where you begin
and it ends

Like when there is a fire
but nobody can decide what is on fire
and so everything
is on fire
the moment you describe
it bursts into flames
and up and down the street the fire goes
running
wrapped up in bedsheets
looking for its edges