Relic Environments Trilogy: Book I, Part 1.ix

from Book I, Part 1, Mystery Tramp Eclogues

The Idler’s Miscellany

Gaius Valerius Catullus, c 84 BCE – 54 BCE; it is suggested that his great love, the ‘Lesbia’ of his poems, was probably Clodia Metelli, sister of the demagogue Publius Clodius Pulcher, and wife of Quintus Metellus Celer. He served in Bithynia in 57 BCE, in the entourage of provincial governor Gaius Memmius. It is thought that while there he visited the grave of his elder brother, before returning to Italy the following year. He died in Rome.

What was she to me

Gone now, taking sunny days with her

I should have seen it coming, moping here

And miserable

I realize now that I did all the running

She only joined the chase

Because she wanted to be caught

No more kisses for you, lady

I’ve got my head screwed-on

At last

She’s pretty enough, but I see now

A hard bitch in other ways

Thinking back on the good times

Everything seemed possible

I can still taste her mouth

Catullus

You’re an idiot

…

Here, Postumia, sit on my lap

And make the room stop spinning

This wine’s not so weak after all

And Bacchus knows

I like my Falernian straight off the vine

Where’s that waiter gone

Sit on my lap, Postumia

Sit on this

…

Fabullus, darling

Long time no see

I’d forgotten your wife was such a looker

By all means

Dinner

You bring the salt, the wine

Something nice, a little entertainment

And I’ll recite the poems about True Love

I saved for a special occasion

Here, have a sniff of this

It’s new, the latest scent, Venus Herself

I think it’s called

One whiff and you’ll beg the gods

To transform you into One Big Nose

Even starting with a hooter

The size of yours

…

Speaking of noses, that girl’s

Is not the daintiest

And how can she get through the door

With those feet

Little piggy fingers

And

Her makeup’s awful

Can you believe she’s praised

For her grace and beauty

Ha

I hear Mamurra the bankrupt

Kept her in the provinces

Imagine, whoring for the likes of him

No standards anymore, that’s the trouble

…

Gellius, wise up, this guy’s a creep

Do you think it’s normal, mounting your own mother

Or your sister

Your hand working beneath your clothes

The farthest Tethys and the Oceans

The Nymph King himself

Imagine nothing lower

Nam nihil est quicquam sceleris, quo prodeat, ultra

His head tucked in his own crotch, sucking and sucking

…

My girl swears it’s me she’d marry

Even if Jupiter himself came courting

It’s me she’d choose

Still, she always talks that way

About everything

Arms waving, talking and talking

Even when we’re at it

Love, something written

On water

…

Why do you make me love you

You make me crazy, how can I respect you

You act like such a slut

If this is going to work

We both need to be better people

You particularly

…

I’m torn up over you

How can you expect me to feel two things at once

To explain it all away

Like nothing happened

Love and hate

Two other words

…

I take her abuse

She works herself into a rage

Her husband regards the whole thing

As highly amusing

Shit for brains, if he knew what the rages meant

It wouldn’t seem so funny

She can’t forget me, can’t find the cure

Can’t find the silence

That says she’s over me

…

Even in public, such insults

The more she realises she still wants me

The more furious she gets

I’m the same

I never miss an opportunity

Dishing the dirt to anyone who’ll listen

It must be love

…

Don’t believe everything I say, Tappo

I’d dig out my own eyes before I’d think

Of hurting her

I was true, she more than cherished

We more than lovers, no others above her

It’s just that sometimes

Thinking about her, I can’t seem to help myself

*

Brother, I have come to your grave

In this far place

At the end of oceans

Here, to your ashes

My offering, a tribute our fathers would have known

How else to mark this grief

The last time I saw you

Neither of us thinking of tears

Or goodbyes

…

No other island or peninsula

Allowed by Neptune a place untroubled on the sea

Pleases me as much as you

Sirmione

Safe back from Thynia

At last the journey to our own house

Ended, among our own gods

We deserve a rest, a couch

A lake to look upon

A chance to laugh-off Asia Minor

Relic Envirnoments Trilogy: Book I, Part 1.viii

from Book I, Part 1, Mystery Tramp Eclogues

Anon

 

You are an idiot: a Shakespeare scholar’s Shakespeare.

You are the rose. You are perfect for preparing quick,

both ordinary and legendary.

Unable to curb a natural impulse, you are April 6,

a girl on the delicate brink of her pre-teen years.

You are thirty, taking time to care for our beautiful daughter.

You are not the full blood sidhe.

You are to use small tackle, and fish slowly.

You are approximately 1654.

On a mission, you are giving us

a huge double ring of roses around our perimeter.

You are considered the latchkey to the white mountains.

You are not as wild

and lack the carnival atmosphere of the weirs.

You are the Canadian River ten miles west of Borger

in Hutchinson County.

You are one of my favourite actresses.

I think you are really believable.

You are a woman who does not prefer

heavy fragrances of rose.

You are not obliged to respond to.

You are anon.

You are by no means limited to one message.

You are not alone doing that.

Relic Environments Trilogy: Book I, Part 1.vii

from Book I, Part 1, Mystery Tramp Eclogues

Envoi

From the centurion gate, sharp shadows

fall among wild flowers, a mountain of cut stone

sunk in grass since Diocletian’s time.

A preference for the Virgin cult

teased the blood lust from these façades,

the bishopric from bacchanal.

Our sins are set, in monument bronze, or baroque

in gilt relief. At the graves of the great

we arrive for absolution, for abeyance

of fire in this attendance.

On the steps, a beggar bares ankle sores,

calling misery to its coin.

Rome, wolf-suckler – from this tended flame, empire,

the river rising

through tombs and fighting-pits –

in this place, the guilty dead burn and burn.

I step by the queues to the basilica, its colours

and sufferings and deeds of light.

I am released from history, turning back

with other ghosts, through the orchard

and the shadow gate, along the path of worn stone

to the temple of the poisoners.

     

Relic Environments Trilogy: Book I, Part 1.vi

from Book I, Part 1, Mystery Tramp Eclogues

Venn Diagram for Four Terms

You may be aware, the rules are simple,

each player representing one reality

and one variant.

The Character Device indicates which reality

you are in. Movement is decided in the cards,

enabling you to pass between realities.

The symbol may be spoken, to allow you

to damage the realities the cards contain.

A Universal Device affects all realities the same.

It is played face-down, and activated

when turned.

It can be activated between plays,

to deal with arising circumstances,

counting as Interrupt, taking place

before the resolution of the present reality.

A Personal Device may be carried

to help or protect you. It is played face-down

until activated when turned.

It cannot be played as Interrupt, although

if activated, it will reduce, or in certain circumstances

stop, all actions. It is linked to your Home Reality.

Remember, it can be played just once,

within a definition of time

you must state to the others beforehand.

 

A Reality Intervention Device may be played

in your own reality only,

to deal with interlopers and their actions.

It can be played between turns

to deal with arising circumstances,

counting as Interrupt, taking place

before the resolution of the present reality.

Shuffle the deck, and place it face-down

with your Character card above, to show

which reality you are in.

Each player takes five cards, and you may discard any

that may be detrimental to a present

or intended reality, before choosing again.

Discards remain out of play next to the deck.

Place any devices face-down by your reality.

You may carry a Personal Device, but all others

must remain within your Home Reality.

To activate, turn them face-up.

The devices are triggered when the circumstances

on the card occur, and the cards before you

may represent any combination of devices.

A Movement card details how far

and at what cost each variant reality.

An Attack card permits action against others

within a shared reality.

The actions may be played in any order.

However, following Mind Blast, you may wish

to move clockwise to the next reality.

When you play an Attack card, the damage

is usually figured as x + distance,

by which you calculate the number of realities

away from its home

the card has moved. The damage

must then be added on the card.

When a reality has taken twenty variants of damage,

it ceases to exist. At that point, remove all cards

from that reality,

whether on the table or in hand.

Any player caught in a Reality Collapse

is shunted back to their own reality,

should it still exist.

Be aware, that speaking the characters

Closure, Eject, or Cosmic Finger,

may affect both cards and players

moving between realities. In which case

the only card to remain effective is, Jump.

The last player in the one remaining reality

may then celebrate the uniqueness

of that reality, and their place within it.

I think that’s everything, or mostly.

The rules are simple enough, but often change

without warning. Now, if you’re ready to begin,

time is against us, and the others are waiting.