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23 March 2020 – The One – #10: City Secundus – Segment: 6

The second city adventure continues. Our main character suddenly feels caught up in the life of others, in particular, the woman in black. With some hesitation, the scruffy and somewhat smelly MC accepts the invitation to accompany her to a funeral where a man is to be burned with his boat. Although dipping a toe into this community, the objective of getting to the sea remains. So, the protagonist is “among them, not of them.” This segment focuses on death and reactions to it. The MC is still young and coming face-to-face with death is somewhat of a surprise. Although this segment is about half the length of the usual, it is packed with serious matters; even Argose is low-key. The interaction between the MC and Ratcliff continues briefly at this point, and will pick up again in a later segment.




“I can’t eat yet, but I will go with you
            that is if you won’t be embarrassed by me.”
“You can stay off to the side – hide your smell.”
She says this with a smirk and a chuckle
Argose paces back and forth nose snuffling
“All right then.” I run fingers through my hair
            wiping my forearm across my mouth

So, the three of us set off for the harbor
I have no idea what I’m doing.
All there is besides this is sailing south
            toward the ever-closer sea
            ever searching blindly – Argose and me 
                                                            

Next day that’s exactly what I’m doing    
The pure funeral fire remembered shining 
            big-prowed boat burning hot and radiantly
The black-clad woman with name of Ratcliff
            did ignore me and instead talked with friends
I’m thinking of the funeral march before
            the burning that started up in the town
            all feet in time, stepping firm on the street
            all the way from the middle of the city
            men carried the corpse on its wooden bier
                        wreathed with ivy and white, star-shaped flowers
No one spoke on this water-bound journey
I saw the dead man’s sunken face and body
            a tall, timeworn man – a gray-bearded man
            the skin on his arms drooped like a folded sail
            his chest unnaturally round held a heart
                        lately thrumming out a living breath-beat
                        sending that Northern blood coursing stanchly
                                    on adventures aboard a boat unlike mine
                                    or at least I fantasize him as so
                                    truly I want to be when death takes me
                                    one who kept going, one foot front the other

The man become corpse become blackened ash
            become dark fragments on this green river
                        become nothing at all – nothing at all
The proud, dragon-bowed ship built with rough hands
            lit like a candle – its wick at both ends
                        become the fire for the man who’s leaving
                                    become debris – charred boards
                                    become splinters in sand washed up on shores
                                    become food for insects and pickings for birds
                                                chewing and pecking ‘til nothing remains
                                                nothing remains – nothing at all remains
                                                                                                
All this I think on and wonder – fearful
            like one who’s staked out under burning sun
How will I die? A nascent question comes
How will I die? A haunting from deep time
Surely, I am born and living, breathing
            and if I am born certainly all others
                        come to light from dark waters emerging
                        bursting, wailing from ancient blood and bone
On such great matters I place my new mind
            ticking, ticking for all like me, my kind
                        stealing looks at the corpse as all walk in time

I heard some say that after two nights
            of mourning, they carried the empty bier
                        in procession through the city’s north gate
                        at the second watch of the night’s true name
                        they carried the dead man’s empty bier 
around the city walls, in and out nine gates
finally leaving by the eastern gate toward 
man and boat crackled like a forest burning

More thoughts arise on birth and more on death
These doubtful twins entwine from breath to breath
Surely, I will live on and on forever
            unlike the burned-black corpse – I am not old
I’m barely beyond my childhood’s whining
Because of this corpse for my life pining

At the third watch on the third day came
            from the river shore through the western gate 
            the man’s empty bier with no possessions
            They placed it at center of the city’s square
            Around it, corpses to be buried appeared
                        homage flowers and ivy heaped upon them
                                    each circled by several black-clad mourners
I stood with the circles and Argose near
He has been most solemn and subdued here
            as well as during these past days with me
Standing, I pondered if tomorrow I’d still be 



Background:
Death and disappearance – one of the great matters of Buddhism. The main character, like the Buddha, comes close to a human corpse for the first time. The reaction is not one of horror or fear, but rather a deep curiosity. It would seem that most people simply don’t consider death very often, even when a loved one passes. Certainly, grieving is a part of such events; however, grief eventually passes, and as they say, “life goes on.” Similarly, when we are in good health, it seems the natural state; however, again like the Buddha, when we encounter someone who is gravely ill, it causes questions about our own fragility. When I say, “like the Buddha,” I’m speaking of the three sights that sent him running from his princely palace and cushy life. Those three: old age, sickness, and death. Two appear in this segment, the last in the next segment. It might not be a bad idea to consider our own meetings with these three. 

Exploration 1: Three sentences into this segment, the verb tense changes. What reason(s) could be operative for doing this?
Exploration 2: Do you find the insertion of the corpse (man from the North) incongruous? Why might this man be in this southerly direction?
Exploration 3: What is your reaction to the MC’s ruminations on death and disappearance?


















Comments


  1. 1. Starts in the present tense, switches to past. Maybe the MC just imagines the funereal. I don’t think that’s it. We never get to the burning. We learn about the weird seeming ceremonies. The three days leading up to the burning. Who are the other corpses? Very mysterious.
    2. He’s traveling South. The MC is from somewhere North of this city, I think.
    3. Earlier segments are about appearing. It’s natural for the MC to consider disappearing.

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    Replies
    1. Mysterious, indeed, and an entree into the upside-down koan with surreal frosting that marks a multi-shift technique. Anything that can't be explained by a literal reading of this Song and others after it is an invitation to the reader's interpretation.
      You have your cardinal directions right.
      Appearances and disappearances run through the entire epic. The main character is the most stable/unstable axis point around which everything and everyone else spins.
      Thank you for going the distance with me.
      JPSavage

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