Mighty Mercury

These men lead us around by knotted noose ropes and metal hand braces. We trip over fallen radiators and sit bound to the gasoline stove. Maybe we try to bite, not because we are hungry but because we like to listen to the resulting cries. Every day, we are decorated by another rope. They vary in color. Our favorite ones are those that are a dirty brown but those are rare: they give us white and so we must color in between the lines with bodily paints.

2

Man and wife are chained to their bathroom floor and left to die while their neighbors sit with their backs to toilets and sinks. The cool plumbing alleviates the bedsore suffering. Goodbye, nerves. Hello, numbing. Their shared urethra shrinks from lack of use. They scream when the urine stream forces the tunnel open. It is self-rape, they scream. Our body does this to make us feel bad. Then someone falls and is lost inside the bathtub.

3

We see the manbaby sitting on the bathroom floor. His bald head strikes the shower stall repeatedly until his scalp cracks and bleeds. He is hungry for his bottle of sausage and mashed potatoes. Where have your clothes gone, we ask him, checking his diaper for dried waste. I want to eat a woman, he says and runs his tongue over the sides of his red-caked mouth. He huddles over and grows hands out of the small of his back.

4

This man has a fire in his belly. He drinks water but cannot put it out. There is a fire extinguisher on his bedroom wall. The flames lick against his throat. This man takes the fire extinguisher and eats the nozzle. He sucks up the foam and drinks the white down. He already feels cooler. He looks in the mirror and sees the bubbles coming out of his facial orifices. The foam spills out onto the floor. He breathes it in. He has fire extinguisher gills.