a mystery waiting to happen

still-life-village,  22" x 30",  gouache on paper

 *****

hmmm, the deaf mute painter was waking up from a nap on the sun patch of his kitchen floor when he glimpsed out of his eye's corner, a sharp, radiant, white snowflake of a note card, flying, spinning fluttering through space. the note landed, perched and balanced on the tip of his nose. hmmm didn't move, he couldn't. his body was numb, would be for several long minutes, the result of an unnamed minor medical condition that afflicts painters that dream about making paintings. the conditions of that moment solicited hmmm to suspend his curiosity, to revel in the witnessing of the event.  he had never before received a note in the mail, and this one, the first one, the only one was destined to make itself known.  hmmm lay there wondering about the note's contents. he waited and he wondered until his wondering transformed into deft oral maneuvering.  he stuck his tongue out,  pulled the note slowly toward his mouth, gently licking at the envelope's pleat until he could feel the muggy sweetness of it's tight seal resign itself to parting. he flicked, licked and schlicked, he pinched, winched and flinched with his tongue, with his teeth, with his lips until the crease of the note card unfolded, illuminating the letters that were scribbled and scrabbled together to form a query, a question, a mysterious proposition:

would hmmm like to cross the swamp in a wax paper boat?

*****