Assignment #1 and Assignment #2
Assignment #1
Thought is a wet canvas strapped in the bed of a pickup truck moving fast. It is a vibrant and expressive painting of fine intricate lines, a freshly painted composition held in place by 80-miles-per-hour bungee cords that are surprisingly not wobbly. Years ago a kid idly shoved Oreos into the air conditioning vents, so now when it gets hot the truck’s cab smells gently of stale chocolate biscuit. And it is hot. Dirty road trip hot, bland yellow hot, nowhere hot.
Language is the highway.
Please drive the truck with one hand and don’t let off the gas. Use your other hand to angle a rake or a similar implement out the window behind you. Which hand does which action is up to you. Angle the rake/implement to snap loose a bungee cord just so, causing the snapping cord to fling the painting out of the truck face down onto the empty highway just so. Eyes on the road.
Your assignment is to leave a forgery-perfect duplicate of the painting on the road.
Assignment #2
Thought is the sound of a river that is nearby but out of sight, hidden from the narrow hiking trail by tall trees that stretch upwards to hide one another from the growing daylight. The distinctive sound of the river is itself made of a billion individual near-silences borne downstream; together the separate and fleeting quietnesses compose the static river roar. The river sounds are moving constantly away while the river’s sound holds still.
Language is your hand.
Please find the river. Dip your hand into it. Cold, huh? Hold it there, let the renewing encounter between your hand and the passing water be part of the river’s sound. Then bring your hand back to me, back through the stout dead trees and the tall live ones, carefully avoiding the slippery grass on steep little pitches of the trail, back to camp before it's time to wake everyone else with the smells of breakfast.
Your assignment is to return your rivered hand to my tent without waking the others, to bring your hand to my face so I can feel just how cold the river is this morning. Cup it around my sleep-warm ear just so and let me hear some of the river.