Bob Heman


from INFORMATION

INFORMATION

She thought the whale was on fire, that love was only a word that escaped unnoticed, that in France the number three meant something different. She thought that the voice she heard was only the snow piling higher on the elephants, and that when she spoke, it was only her own desire repeating itself until someone finally noticed.


INFORMATION

There is no meal you can cook that doesn't contain things that were once alive. It is here philosophy ends and reality begins. It is here that the horizon is more than just the end of the ocean. It is here she will speak a word that you can finally understand.


INFORMATION

The hotel has some rooms that are never rented. In them the trees are allowed to grow larger and larger. In them the monkeys are taught to speak Esperanto. The only light available is that shed by the misguided travelers in their search for the windows that aren't there. Sometimes counting will relieve their confusion for a moment or two.


INFORMATION

No matter how much she tugged on his ears they didn't get any larger. The history of forsythias never included what happened next. It was not true that she changed into salt.


INFORMATION

The paper boats confuse the bears. They are not large enough to get inside, and have no motors so they can only drift with the currents. The bears don't realize that the boats are very much like the bears themselves, who never understand their own reason for being, and who frequently lack the motivation to leave their caves, even after spring has approached.


INFORMATION

In London the streets are piled on top of each other. In Paris they run in circles and in Brussels they cross where they shouldn't. In Dubrovnik there are no streets at all. But none of this is true. There is a bear in each city that controls the streets, giving each a purpose it had never had before. Sometimes the birds are able to find the homes there that they have always required. At other times it is only the night that gives them comfort.


INFORMATION

Let's pretend that it is still night. That the stars have not yet retreated into their hiding places. That the cars are actually more than the props they seem to be. Let's imagine the people we see are real, even when they are not. Let's pretend that the first word spoken was only a word that had no meaning. Let's return to the same door again and again, always imagining we will find something different.


INFORMATION

What is revealed during the ensuing moments no more than an aberration in the construction of the plot. The man suddenly hidden in the barn, drawn in chalk on the pavement, reduced to a sound that is repeated each time the gate is opened or closed. The horizon no longer an explanation, the adjectives no longer necessary to construct the sequence of events. The word given to the woman only revealed once it is too late.


INFORMATION

It wasn't his fault that all the actors looked like actors. But it limited the way in which the story could be told. Even the dog only looked like it was playing a part. The words she said had been scripted, but somehow meant something different each time she said them. The road that they followed led them off the stage, and into the forest which they had never left. It was there that the story became real.


INFORMATION

Is required to answer the bell, the owl, the woman who is pointing. Is required to answer the formula that fills the blackboard without asking a specific question. Is required to answer the earth, the water, the fire, the air. Is required to speak but has never been taught how.


INFORMATION

Learns to say “what the fuck” in response to certain situations. Learns to count anything that can be repeated. Learns the difference between the cow and the drawing of the cow. Learns the difference between the sky and the mirror. Knows that the words have a different purpose that she hasn't yet discovered. Learns that she is only half of the story.


INFORMATION

The man left on shore is a different man than the one who was left the last time. This is required if the story is to change, is required if the story is to remain the same, is required if the story is ever to invite us inside. The story contains enough distance to contain us all. It is the reason we were given more legs than a spider, more hands than a clock, more eyes than the fattest potato.


INFORMATION

The purpose of socks, of the horizon, of the word “describe.” The purpose of counting. The purpose of syntax. The purpose of margins. The way the mushroom, or door can be made to be an exception. The purpose of rules. The distance these words must travel before they end.

Bob Heman is full of information. He lives on the west end of Long Island in what was once the city of Brooklyn.

 
 

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