Ani4ani4ani4ani4ani

A mechanical digger is clearing up the remaining copies of USA

I am standing on the corner of the street

Watching the operation

On the opposite corner is John Dos Passos

He is sharing an ice cream

With a girl in a green dress

Today a man was executed in the USA

The largest democracy in the world

He took ninety minutes to die

Shroud Knot

Open out the ends of the rope that are to be knotted, put them together as for splicing and single wall the strands of each end and round the main part of the opposite end; then taper the strands off, marl down, and serve over.

The girl in the green dress comes up to me and asks for a knot

I ask for a secret in exchange

“I have fucked a maximum of Arabs and Jews” she replies

“That is a line from a movie”  I note and hand the girl a smaller knot

She smiles and crosses the road with my knot in her hand

I notice the early signs of perspiration on her bare shoulder

Matthew Walker

Put a whipping on (as with all knots), open the strands down to the whipping, and pass the first end through its own bight, the next through its own and the first and third through all three bights; haul all the ends through, work the turns around and place them; and the knot will appear.

When I looked up again John Dos Passos and the girl were gone

So had the mechanical digger

A few books remained hidden in the scruffy trees

I removed one and placed it in my canvas bag

Turk’s Head  

Take two round turns round the rope, pass the upper bight down through the lower, and reeve the upper end down through it; then pass the bight up again, and reeve the end over the lower bight and up between it and the upper one; dip the upper down through the lower bight again, reeve the end down over what is the upper bight, and between it and between it and the lower; and so proceeds, – working around to your right until you meet the other end, when you pass through the same bight, and follow the other end round and round until you have completed a plait of two, three or more lays, as you wish.

The Tables of Margherita  

Next to the subway Arthur Rackham is selling his illustrations of Wagner

I hand the old man a copy of USA

And he gives me three drawings of his musical muse

Named Margherita

I nail these to the safety trees

A Fox

A Fox is made by rolling a couple of yarns up the contrary way to your knee, and rubbing them down. A Spanish Fox is a single yarn rolled up the reverse way, and rubbed down.

A small boy comes up to me and asks for a knot

I request a secret in return

“That my tongue is constructed from plastic” he replies

I hand the boy a knot and he runs into the subway where the orchestra is playing selections from Wagner

I rest at the Tables of Margherita

A naked dwarf brings me refreshment and asks for a knot

I request a secret in return

“I dream of being tall” he replies

“That was the answer I expected” I say adding that I often dream about being short

At a nearby table a woman in a purple dress laughed with her handsome companion

I could sense the dwarf’s envy as he walked towards the couple, I feared violence but this was an idle worry as the dwarf handed the man a knot and began to stroke the woman’s naked leg

The man laughed

The dwarf laughed

The woman did not laugh and pushed the dwarf away

She sat at my table

I asked her name

Her name was Margheria and her brother had been executed that day

He took ninety minutes to die

I lit a cigarette for her but she passed it to a passing dwarf who swore at us both

Which made her laugh

Benidictus

The artist El Lissitsky came to our table and kissed the woman before sitting down

He showed me his study

For Richard Neutra’s

Amerika

Which is being used on the cover

Of the paperback edition of USA

He has a dog called

Benidictus

The woman gives him the last remaining copy of USA and notes that the others were likely to have been destroyed

We all watch as the bonfire burns the other books

Detail  

My canvas bag in now empty and I have no further knots to give away

Yet my bag is full of secrets

A small Oriental woman hands me a postcard

It advertises

An Artists Biennial

I politely refuse the gift

But she grabs my right hand

And paints my palm light blue

I present my palm to El Lissitsky

As a parting gift

He presents me with his palm

Painted black

The woman takes my canvas bag

And leaves me naked

Near the burning books

Stopper Knot  

Double wall, lay the ends up, put a whipping on, and cut them off.