Wednesday, June 4, 2014

Morse Code

photo: Lou Sander
It’s a timeless scene that defeats history, though it does recall certain Italian films of the 50’s and 60’s in which the appearance of a comely woman on a public thoroughfare creates near riot conditions. In this case, the sun, like an outclassed fighter, is futilely attempting to poke its way through a determined cloud cover. But Third Avenue is buzzing with the kind of electricity you find on one of those horrendously magnificent spring days. Urgent voices are calling to each other in a host of languages, one passing the baton off to the other, as if there's actually an accident or crime occurring at the now crowded intersection. In an even earlier movie perhaps of the 30’s or 40’s, there would have been a cut to telegraph lines and a visored operator tapping out Morse code. Perhaps a taxi has experienced a fender bender or a bicyclist has taken a spill and a fight is breaking out. Road rage can occur on even the nicest spring days, and today the fog is winning out. As an observer draws closer to the corner, he sees fingers pointing. It’s like the old Superman movies. It’s a bird, it’s a plane…No, it’s a behind. One of the most beautiful behinds that nature has ever created, mounted on a pair of high heels that seem to defy gravity and showcased on a stepladder outside the plate glass window of a woman’s dress shop, like a diamond broach on display at Tiffany’s. Oh, the face is no slouch either. Let’s just say that its provenance is someplace more exotic than Rio and that the owner is a beauty who possesses the gene for both mystery and unapproachability. Yes, she’s the human form of the praying mantis, the female insect who bites its partner’s head off during copulation.

2 comments:

  1. jylle benson-gaussJune 4, 2014 at 8:05 AM

    Perfect.

    ReplyDelete
  2. As the French say, plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose

    ReplyDelete

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