Friday, November 07, 2008

O Livro do Comerciante Arrogante

That evening, a whale of an evening, the man in the hat read from O Livro do Comerciante Arrogante by Bruxo do Cosme Velho. ‘O Comerciante Arrogante sold fruit fit for a king, boysenberries and blackberries, colossal plums, pipless pomegranates and seedless grapes, succulent peaches, mouthwatering ice- berries picked from the highest branches of the tallest ice-berry trees...’. O Livro do Comerciante Arrogante was a book of lies and fleeces, chicanery. The author, Bruxo do Cosme Velho, was a counterfeiter, a sham artist. The author lived in a 27½ room walkup in Rhondda Cynon Taff, a town know for its sweet brandy and gristle sausages.

On the eve of The Feast of Octave of St. Camillus Dejesus bought a hooker’s cap and a box of all-sweets. On the eve of The Feast of Octave of St. Camillus the Witness wove his eyebrows into grasshopper wings. Unbeknown to one another both men prepared for the upcoming feast, a spectacle of the rarest debauchery. The Witness put on his favorite stockings, the heels and toes tar belled. Dejesus angled his favorite cap on his head, garlanded with wildflowers and ostrich feathers, then bending at the knee bowed crookedly in front of the Waymart clock, the littlest hand on the 27, the biggest on the ½. The Witness, who’d witness more than he could bear, gartered his stockings to his belt, cinching them taut with his thumb and forefinger. Unlike Ships Day, which was celebrated with flags, crab-cakes and whiskey, The Feast of Octave of St. Camillus was a solemn affair, the celebrants eating bluish cheeses and drinking draught pail water. The Ushuaia brothers of Tito del Fuego celebrated The Feast of Octave of St. Camillus every year, traveling by oxcart from Tierra de la Volga, a small corn-fed town where the denizens wore cowlick hats and bolero chaps. The Meth sisters were born to the Lorraine twins, Eberth and Alva, from Dombasle-sur-Meurthe. The Meth sisters traveled by pushcart with the Ushuaia brothers of Tito del Fuego, each taking turns pushing the cart.

Dejesus the Witness the Ushuaia brothers (of Tito del Fuego) and the Meth sisters (born to the Lorraine twins, Eberth and Alva, from Dombasle-sur-Meurthe) arrived the eve of The Feast of Octave of St. Camillus. In honor of Bruxo do Cosme Velho the man in the hat was to read from Livro do Comerciante Arrogante, thus commencing The Feast of Octave of St. Camillus.

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"Poetry is the short-circuiting of meaning between words, the impetuous regeneration of primordial myth". Bruno Schulz
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