Article 10: Three Scenes From Last Tuesday

A man goes into the Church of Saint Stephens carrying a Marilyn Monroe mannequin, sitting down listening to the sermon with Marilyn Monroe on the chair beside him. When the sermon ends he picks her up and they leave the church together.

On the street appear men carrying the long bodies of skinned animals over their shoulders. The animals, perhaps lambs, are stretched out like they were sprinting through the air. The meat men enter the butcher shop and go to the back. I follow them in. The building is a maze of hanging animals and staircases and workers resting on chairs. On the top floor, past twists and turns of stark hallways that feel like travelling through the guts of an animal, the boss sits in a beautiful wood-paneled office overlooking the street. I shake his hand.

Down in the ravine, well-hidden from the city's houses, a guy is playing a didgeridoo beside a stream. The musician is from Iran, working here in a cabinet factory. He has a bit of a fire going, and gets a cast iron teapot he keeps hidden there in a hollow log. Dipping it into the creek, he makes a pot of tea. "Now that you know where it is, use my teapot anytime you like."


--David Stokes