À double tour

(for Claude Chabrol)

Leda's petite and modern home
the swan she calls it
contains so many random dioramas
clusters of dolls and statues
some collected others invented

there is a pile of straw stuffing
(suffering)
which somewhat resembles a wig
and an armless female doll wearing only
a sleeveless chiton

floor to ceiling brass shoji panels
held by inset rails
break up the space so that
in the French countryside
a strange memory a technique
is rekindled in the way that the rooms
may be assembled or disassembled at will
within limits

the ultimate no results in a family milieu
whereby all against all gives birth
to consequences the web of passion
is not so easily swept away
Kesshi-hachidai

Boolean algebra was invented before
the advent of electronic circuitry
and so it was born without a purpose
but it is not true that the mise-en-scène
takes precedence over psychology
but rather that there is a cryptic
relationship between the two
not necessarily an echo
and not necessarily not

consider the character
of the false cousin's name
Laszlo Kovacs (a character)
is the truth-telling of optics
also a character?

in 1959 Laszlo Kovacs
(a would-be cinematographer)
was still waiting for his footage
of the Hungarian revolution
to be shown on CBS

and Leda was long dead
and mostly immortal
having become one of those
incredibly strange creatures
who stopped living and became
mixed-up zombies

and there is that funny little echo
that stands guard over the platform
where the dolls are made
a version of a Boolean equation

a truth table
so that we can make a little house
with rooms
where sometime Leda is a swan
and sometime a harpy
and sometime both
and sometime
neither

and it could be said
among many other things
that design itself
is a double lock

a modern glass electrical insulator
placed forlornly
on its own miniature
and ornamental
carved Chinese pedestal
standing in for conversation
or poetry

or is it a delicate
and transparent vase?
this is how the broken mirror
remains a harpy (a swan)
the Garuda
returning to flight.


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