Strange Landscape

by Tony Duvert

  you’re a traitor you betrayed us Lulu

  aw don’t be that way you guys honest I never said anything

  oh he admits it torture him then

  no not that no five hundred lollipop sticks pointing up out of the sand and the condemned is tossed high into the air crashing down upon them body pierced in ten thousand different places sand drinking up his blood greedily and finally a deep growl issues from the bowels of the earth the god appeased burps Oh that was good Lulu! no not that please Then talk asshole we have to know what crime you committed But you’re all batshit I never did anything Prove it But how? That’s your problem asshole prove you didn’t do anything for example this morning What did I do this morning? You got up didn’t you? Well yes everybody gets up Well in your case you shouldn’t have No gang he shouldn’t have Lulu now you’ve got to confess to the rest of the day as well bind him up guys and they make a great show of tying imaginary ropes to all four extremities before carrying him down to the water Confess or we’ll drown you wetting his ass a bit as a preview of coming attractive tortures Confess

  an old stone wall crumbling covered with flowers I moved slowly one shoulder propped against it I don’t know the names of all those blossoms flesh-colored gillyflowers ragged robins pink-and-white baby’s breath michaelmas daisies yellow centers like the sun rosettes of thick leaves spiked clusters naked pink stalks earlobes of buds ferns so spidery others with fronds as thick as lentils discreetly swaying above black petioles violaceous stems long and fine as a strand of hair two strands many strands brushing back this mane of mine long flowery tresses that attract mischievous young boys I hum a gypsy air my tiny bare feet have the dancing loveliness of wind-swayed yellow spring crocus mauve swamp mallows oh they’re following me oh I love them and my eyes shine ever so brightly oh boy you there pretty boy take me in your strong young arms undo my hair and oh your lips still wet from pronouncing all those filthy words come press their spit upon my flushed cheeks with a loud smack with an mmsssschuueeee or a bbbbffffooooooh

  so many wet young mouths begrimed with brownish goo like assholes sticky with custards creams jams breadcrumbs glistening with scales of sugar wafers teeth coated with milk scum mustaches of cocoa I lick them all suck in that brown froth as I sucked their assholes these were the things I had forgotten earlier a rubber finger entering penetrating me until the pain was hardly bearable my shoulder feels so heavy now against this wall of flowers invading my hair clutching tearing soft surrendering anus into which slides my cock all covered in sweet spit I bored straight in keeping it hard so that afterward they can tell me how good it felt and open their asses next time even wider rubbery round cushions fiery farters where I and then I had this I don’t even feel my fly no need to verify anymore from which organ of my body they had suspended me

  no not my head stop it bbblub bbblub

  you’ll be drowning in your own piss, next if you don’t hurry up and confess are you going to talk then? I don’t know anything I didn’t do anything Yes you did somebody saw you I wasn’t there Shit he’s a stubborn fucker isn’t he dunk his head under again come on you guys one two three No wait yes I was there but take me out of the water first Not so fast you say you were where? There wherever you said I was We didn’t say where okay gang drop him back into the drink! one of them pressing his palm down hard fingers splayed across Lulu’s face counting out thirty seconds Lulu gasping mouth puckering beneath the wavelets finally managing to raise his head with one enormous intake of breath Good that was your punishment now tell us where you were No not here I’ll tell you anything everything but back up there on the beach Why? are you afraid? Well all the same you guys wouldn’t dare drown me for real would you? Oh shit can’t you even take a joke fatso fairy

  they toss him into the water again but this time without much conviction then drag him along the sandy strand Where should we put him? why not under the toboggan? and so they bind him there with make-believe knots in such a manner that his head is exactly under the slide when they send a ball of sand rolling down then more and more balls finally come hurtling down themselves hotshot flying fireball asses shooting sparks farting crushing his fat cheeks with their fat cheeks You understand what we’re going to do huh? Lulu nods mutely Then it wouldn’t be wise for you to clam up now would it? come on tell us where you were

  at what time?

  don’t play the stupid cunt with us we’ve already warned you

  but I

  okay guys send down some sand fatso here refuses to sing a trickle then a downpour the kid shuts his eyes his mouth contracting all his facial muscles the first volley of sand causing him to shiver violently he shakes his head hands are supposedly still tied together behind his back he asks somebody to wipe him off a bit You must be kidding fatso you can still talk can’t you? grains of sand upon his eyes granulated eyelids lowering his face into his chest to the right to the left hair now quite wet plastered suddenly a gray blond from all that sand finally he opens one eye then the other cautiously And about time says Simon okay now tell us when and where Lulu decides it wiser to go along with their game At noon You’re sure about that? Yes Well I don’t believe you Honest at noon or uh maybe five after I can’t remember anymore You’d better choose one or the other fatso But I tell you I don’t know! and suddenly in hysterics he breaks out blubbering That’s it! cries Simon send down all the sand you guys still have up there

  an ass I forget what they look like there’s a tail of course mouth full of huge yellow teeth flaring nostrils ears shaped like tobacco leaves or do those belong to dromedaries short hair dun-colored bristly to the touch tail ending in a thick tuft two wary eyes that peer out at huge blue horseflies the kind that lay their eggs only in cadavers devourers of suppurating pussies and burst abscesses I’ve only seen if I remember right a dead ass two wooden wheels creaking turning idly beneath a cloudless sky bluer than horseflies and the driver sat there weeping astride that enormous bald belly that panted no more in the summer heat udder useless now teats sucked dry by weasels during the night pink tips stained with blood hairy flippers along the sides of its head sagging dull and ashen and those open eyes so tender glazed gaze of a monkey donkey in love we dragged her by the tail all the way to the waves she was tethered to an iron ring screwed into the wall rubbed her hide up against all that rubble of rock sucking nettles a jenny feasting upon thistles big baskets hanging down over each flank one contained children all cut up salted and dried the other mustard plants cabbages potatoes blood sausage of the finest meat stuffed into human colon casings the ass driver weeps and weeps his hiccups bouncing him up and down upon that swollen belly dying donkey who farts and lets loose a stream of runny shit

  along the entire length of wall sacks of lavender spilling down perfuming the entire street as blossoms fall upon cobblestones juice squeezed crushed by tiny hoofs resounding clip clop so prettily as the animal wends its way upward I get full in my face first sand then the spread cheeks of the first boy speeding down the toboggan my nose is smashed but inside me still more tears to shed more blood to bleed no more gentleness anywhere they’ll surely kill me this time for real and I’ll never see hairs sprouting around my prick the ones sure to come soon except maybe in heaven if such things are allowed to grow there

  two ears two antennae two labial palpi two retractable horns and two venomous hooks hidden beneath yellow teeth a real donkey wears shoes without hay stuffing inside them because if they had that he’d chomp it all up two hoofs in front serving to move him forward two hoofs in back serving to back him up he’s got a donkey’s cock too huge pink toy I’ll bet the miller’s wife has toyed with it more than once enough to scare off the birds but my feeding bottle unknown animal I once had an aquarium but the only things that ever swam in it were bright red mantis shrimps menstruation of sea sirens artichoke leaves gelatinous stringy waving upward like jellyfish tentacles the water was boiling hot they plunged into it the hand of the guilty person it’s because they hadn’t been able to buy any oil Boil
ed they taste less good than fried remarks Simon crunching on a thistle coated with almond sugar there are clotted brown pellets like BB shot stuck to his briefs not far away from those two fat balls so smooth color and texture of egg shells

  the kid at the bottom of the toboggan staggers to his feet brushes off the sand powdering his buttocks Then I can go free huh? Shut your trap fatso the jury’s still out

  the wind fresher cooler now sky stuffed with flocking of clouds night falls they return home having less than a quarter-mile to go taking back the boat I don’t cling to it anymore the beach is so long so far away and since I had to walk sky like dirty ink it was noon or five after in the dormitory returning from their morning hike they set their sticks canes crutches wooden legs aside and unblocked their assholes in unison to allow thermometers to be slid up them if I lived I would become that which I search seeking where to take the true lives of this ultimate night neither thighs buttocks soft and creamy as necks smooth-shaven for the knife’s blade nor fingers ten in all with their coordinated movements nor other beauties of the insect I do not find them again neither the cities the forest the outskirts of cities a circle of squashed mushrooms

  blue work trousers covered with shit stains the hat also sticky sucked inward feet thin worm-eaten gloves torn holey holey holey striped tie unpressed with blackish creases I drank a lot of blackish water so cold so fresh the tie is in one of my jacket pockets and I’ve a pair of dirty undershorts in the other he wouldn’t go for me anyway he’s much too involved digging a tunnel within his chateau pulls out a piece of sludge tarring his fingers I rub my hands clean against my trouser legs they lifted the lid and breathed in deeply mussel soup Did you make this soup Mimi? It’s not soup says Mimi it’s juice from mussels What? mussels again? What’s wrong with mussels they’re free and besides if you had to spend all day gathering them Oh I wasn’t bitching it’s all the same with me I like them but you end up shitting green for days afterward and what’s that green stuff there in the water? Sea lettuce it gives them a nicer taste they’ve been hiding out here for two days now they came from afar by secret routes known only to them their donkey died back there in Poitiers or Camaret or was it Saint-Michel-d’Eau-Douce beside the bubbling fountains they broke into the villa during the night

  I shouldn’t have gotten up I was wrong to begin this movement toward the exterior outside of self as if all these kids hauled out of their beds and scrubbed squeaky-clean and stuffed with food and smartly dressed sober penises of babies who no longer piss all over themselves whenever they take them out to do it alongside walls as if all these had come out just to greet me there by that flowery wall he calls Come on take a look it’s nothing to frighten you honest aw come on now don’t you even want to take just one tiny look? the buttons of his fly are so hard to undo he raises his schoolboy’s blouse so 1 can see it better and the vanilla-scented breeze of early morning still dewy with newly minted sun skims over hazel tree branches stirring shrubs flapping open his checkered shirttails his hand remaining there for a long time Oh gee whiz it’s caught wait inside my briefs ouch wait I’ll pull it out from underneath there you just saw it didn’t you? and extremely proud he yanks down his blouse again and sets trudging off to school taking the sun along with him shining down upon his golden calves and very soon it will feast upon his hair as well I had one too one of my own if only he knew

  happy charming carefree the lovely life lovely lie of each day impatient to fill up all these hours to the fullest with little pleasures banal happinesses of yoghurt they lose nothing by waiting I was wrong to turn my gaze from this old country wall the stones will begin crumbling soon leaving cracks revealing a thousand secret scenes then all at once the entire wall collapses and what I eye so greedily beyond disappears in smoke in dust it wasn’t my fault it fell I was lying flat on my belly nose buried in sand and protected by the shadow of a boat in the lee I hear their gull-like cries but the wind and waves grow stronger resifting reshifting sounds within my ears overriding rhythmic pulsing of blood that no longer flows within me I’m growing chilled I don’t become numb though they take me for some huge fish flung by the sea upon high ground beached and already dying my feet unshod stink horribly they hold their noses regarding me oh he smells bad enough to kill a horse they say or a donkey anyway

  a rough wrought iron table it came from the garden behind that stone wall against which the donkey is chained open country already my eyes not strong enough to make out the sea upon the horizon the grocery is in the basement whose back door I point out to them low-roofed house crushed in there between all those other taller houses that run along this street cellar fly-specked naked light bulb cartons of soap dried sausages hanging from the ceiling a baby’s layette and the town newspaper piles smelling of printer’s ink orthography and the stacks all mildewed ten fists tap the table’s marble top in a rapid cadence iron below resounds they are on the verge of giving out their secret battle cry I force two little kids to lick each other’s assholes before me I sodomize a brat eight and a half years old who will spend three weeks in bed afterward I hang another by his feet while I whip his belly with an electric wire electrocuting at the same time the nose and tiny balls of a pouting blond kid another electrode buried deep within a knife wound from which protrudes a kneebone I piss in the mouth of a greedy gurgling nursing baby I force three innocent children to perform lewd acts upon each other simultaneously acts carefully premeditated and highly unnatural they bang down hard upon the table top shout Condemned to death Lulu that’ll learn you executioner do your job!. Lulu kneeling opens his mouth receives a pint of liquor some aperitif he earlier swiped from his father for Bernard poured directly down his throat lips not even touching the neck of the bottle

  a zinc funnel introduced roughly between the buttocks they pour into it a whole saucepan of boiling vinegar the mussels yawn dun-colored still bewhisk-ered and sandy hooked noses squinty little eyes they smell of dog shit they’re gypsies feasting on cauliflower sprinkled with egg yolks and parsley after they’re cooked nobody but them in that abandoned house I’d like to die surrounded by little pink bunnies pussies with little silver bells tinkling around beribboned collars chattering wild-plumed parrots and not among this rabble that grunts and grimaces and massacres our language with their thick accents and whose only wish now is to knock the shit out of me once and for all cuddly little bathers coming one by one to bring me raw mussels and prawns as many as they can find along the rocks offshore they set them down alongside my head like bread set down alongside a bird too tame to fly away touching little gestures timid murmurings sincerely sorrowful you can see it in those eyes of theirs without any flecks all dark pupils He’s wounded but he must be hungry all the same says a tiny gypsy lad with a very low voice should we slit his throat or just let him die on his own? We’d better slit his throat or he’ll only prove to be a lot of trouble later on rolling over that wet tiled floor red and black and white lozenges begging them but they go straight for my adam’s apple knives flashing I bang my head against a wall deep in shadow the darkness becomes a fabric of red satin without sheen and the mattress-covered floor stops me from being bruised the kids on all fours naked cunning as kittens chasing after my cock a gray mouse caught between their sharp playful little paws they bite into it and unwind the pubic hairs as they might a ball of yarn cords of catgut sutures binding the gaping lips of my wounds suddenly give way ripping exploding the swollen skin I’d like to empty void myself completely yanking my guts out so this horrible suffering would stop I grasp myself lacerating myself into strips sand mixed with black thorns penetrating my sores they’re beach ants drawn here by the smell of blood my blood they explore each boy carved up into quarters

  behind the rustic cozy cotton curtains color of cream the child standing by the window contemplates the falling rain gray black ocean pine trees wreathed in mist Well he surely must have some dough on him some cigarettes a wrist watch maybe I certainly wouldn’t touch him it’s bad luck to touch dead people Spit on
him first then wet your finger in it and rub it over his forehead that breaks the curse looped curtains of chintz child unmoving eyes open too wide ready to dissolve in tears and all my flesh decomposing rotting there upon the beach the sea now meek beneath the downpour with contours all blurry and thousands of glistening drops that invade my honeycomb of cells quenching my thirst at least a hand wipes my forehead dry Don’t move try to sleep that voice I recognize it uncertain where it comes from hermaphroditic the contralto of certain boys verging on puberty

  body imperceptible except for a succession of pulsations throbbings in the aortic arch and a knot of thick saliva in the back of the larynx tiny balls that wander become jammed break away once more another sensation this one pink-colored as if shimmering on the outside of my so tightly shut eyelids day had dawned danger I’m growing stiff beneath my sheet I realize I am visible little balls shifting about within me and water flowing down my cheeks I swallow it up again hurriedly a terrible pain rips through my abdomen my testicles ache balls of lead within

  flame flash of lightning but beneath me another flash I am lying not on a bed but on naked electric wires they work a hose over me nozzle pouring out its flood sheet puckering winding more tightly around me it cuts into my ass my head too heavy for my neck to support We can’t keep him in the dorm we should take him down to the infirmary here help me you three let’s roll him up in that blanket careful now