Page 26 - Haruspex

Thirty Degrees of Taurus
I. A sticky pad. A dime. A box of matches. A new car. Your friend saying "When did you get so fat?”
II. Egg hatching. within handkerchief, washed in the blood of Jesus, discarded by an itinerant
superintendent of American prisons.
III. Spring strawberries and a bag full of fairy teeth.
IV. As you can see, it is a chalkboard with an X marked in the middle.
V. The scent of bread baking hits a gravedigger’s nose. She chews black licorice.
VI. The only things worse than death are unrequited desire, and unrequited desire during the time of orgasm.
VII. A nun who was never really nun and now hides in the bell tower.
VIII. Two minutes of wrestling, after eating an entire box of Pop Rocks and drinking beer.
IX. 9 lb. gold bar that's been hanging in a medicine cabinet since you last prayed. It could make you
extremely wealthy, but it'll also kill you.
X. Rubies swirl in whole milk.
XI. Brief note of gratitude and consideration.
XII. After tucking the kids in you go downstairs. There are three ancient tablets, written in blood-red wax on
ancient, white parchment. Over each tablet is written: “You are goddess.”
XIII. Medusa's vineyard.
XIV. A pendant that marks a moment of abundance.
XV. The skull of an ox contains steaming mushroom soup. Those who eat from it are well past inebriation. XVI. The remains of a silver birds with a string of pearls woven around their necks.
XVII. Tootsie Rolls. Roasted peanuts. A fake banana stuffed with a subliminal video of a rodent eating a real banana.
XVIII. You do not have the marks on your $nger. You do not have the marks on your $nger. You do not have the marks on your $nger. You do not have the marks on your $nger. You do not have the marks on your $nger. You do not have the marks on your $nger.
XIX. A diorama depicting how a young Paul Bunyan might have set out to make a cabin. XX. Half of an orange, broken into $ve pieces.
XXI. Half of an apple, screaming in agony.
XXII. A shot of whiskey, with a pinch of blue ice on a cocktail napkin.
XXIII. The symbol of the moon, embedded in a beehive.
XXIV. A rope in the $nal minutes of a complicated sexual act.
XXV. The space between individual atoms. Amethyst. Pyrex glass. Sapphire. Sphalerite. Your heart in amber. XXVI. Prose built to be broken, and bent in unforeseen ways, and tauntingly mounted atop a gigantic cast of
a horse's heart.
XXVII. A child's toe, emerging from the cold $sh bowl. A one-off, wholly absurd thought balloon in a
children's book.
XXVIII. An empty bed. A snake. A love-letter written in lemon juice. XXIX. Your father's face on someones bared breast.
XXX. Strawberry rhubarb pie baked out of season. I am sorry. I am sorry; XXXI.