Page 13 - Contrast1966

a sidewalk painter

Either one day or one night in a dream, I walked to the town. On

the way I saw a girl. She was dressed in green. But .she was ugly. An

ugly yellow girl. She wore the green to ..go with her skin. Blue, might

have looked better.

H How far is it to town? I asked. Far as the turtle goes, she said.

ow, as I go? I asked. Far, too. But farther-as the turtle goes. Then

I saw the turtle she held in her hand. So I asked: How is your turtle?

Fine I'm letting it go today. Today is freedom day. Yesterday the

great yellow leader stood on the mountain and said: Let your turtles

go.! So all yellow people are freeing them today. It's a big turtle.. I
s.aid . Yes I.t I.S. My sister found it in the woods one day an d broug h t

~t home. But today I must go to free it in those woods, she said, point,

mg to a cardboard tree. The town is far that way, she said, pointing
down the road.

By dinner time I passed .another man on the road. He was a man,

a~leep on crutches; puffing a cigarette, taking his pills, and injecting

lumself. In the midst of his nirvana I woke him. How far is it to

town? I asked. As far as heaven, he answered. His eyes told his mad-

ness, and he was not merely mad, but insane. He went back to sleep.

The sI~oke of his drug curled around his shoulders. And went to

sleep WIth him. "

As I walked down the street in town the clock above me struck

twelve fifty. The stores were closed. The people either dead or in

bed. Then I saw the painter. Painting. Whistling ashe painted: He

was. painting the sidewalk red. Twice he stood up to stretch and

str~Ig~ten his back. He painted on his hands and knees. Finger-

pallltm~. Rather palmpainting: for he poured paint from the bucket

to the SIdewalk and smeared it out and evened it out with his palms.

Then he applied the finishing beauty marks with a cake decorating

set. The part he was done looked very pretty.
. At twelve fifty-one, I left. By breakfast time I met the cocained,

Insane crippled with his marijuana smake still resting on his shoulder.

In the afternoon I saw the yellow girl, still in green, by the cardboard

tree. She still had the turtle in her hand, and she kept saying: Should
I? ... Should I?

Then I climbed upon the mountain and again said: Let your
turtles go!

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