Linda Black

 

E J Arnold & Co, Stock no 201194

One page blank, one lined; lined (right), blank (left); lined front, blank back, reversed from the centerfold (blank, blank), the final page being lined (as is the first), each blue line—neither too dark or too pale—a pleasing distance (8mm) from the ones above and below. She hovers, inhabits the spaces between. Each blank page remains and will so remain. Each, by requirement, should have upon it a drawing in pencil or crayon in a child's hand: some aspect of desire, of a world seen not as wanting. Who knows the demeanour of those who wouldst populate such unruly realms?

 

The Onlooker dictates

Neither pen nor paper (to hand) nor any notion of such, this she ignores (as does he). Something in common? Patience/desperation: action/stupefaction—I think not. He may very well reach the end before she ever begins. Take that page in a notebook (Stock No 201194) some way in: 'I never thought you'd get this far' her tutor had written, and she hasn't. Lines run through her head (the beautiful bounty of silence never hers) deeply wrought: chatter, mutter, matter, utter tripe—like that stuff from the inside of a cow, white, visceral, on a tray in the butcher's window. Repeat after me. How could anyone stomach it?

 

 

Copyright © 2008, Linda Black.

Linda Black's first collection, Inventory, appeared from Shearsman in 2008. She lives in London.