ONE
DAY 1
They were brought unto us, cold and frozen, in elegant boxes that their constituents have inlaid with gold and have sheeted in copper—and mounted there upon these copper boxes are fine jewels and precious stones. Stones uprooted from the ancient dialogue and from forgotten festivals of light. And only two of them were sent to us, here at the station. There were a dozen or more they could have brought—for we have moulded many—but brought they unto us just these two. The constituents have clear intentions for their candidates. And we have ours.
And the attendants laid them there upon the table, side by side. Cold on stainless steel—and cold here is the sweat upon their bodies, without fail. And unto them was given sumac and hyssop and the Lilac of Lincoln and the ground up silver powder from the bullets that struck Martin and John. And also unto them was given the remains of Palestinian scar tissue and jars infused with cinnabar that hold the jellied hearts of they that suffered Auschwitz.
DAYS 2-4
And thus filled were they with the science of antiquity and left here to rest. And here we let them lie untethered—and out of state—and in repose. And saturate.
DAYS 5 AND 6
And in due time after marination, we drain the poison from their bodies. Leak from them the systematic grip of a millennia born in disabused desire. And this takes time. But our methods are deliberate. For we move without delusion. Without a stamp or pedigree. No one will ever know our name.
We will begin with these two, the chosen ones from among this nation state of they that do hunger and thirst for sport and personality. We begin with the face of governance, for this is what the people see. The people that long to believe in justice and freedom and goodwill. A people who, at their core walk arm in arm. But they have been marked by colors and teams and wish to win an assumed victory over the opposition’s cause and effect. Upon November’s scale.
DAYS 7, 8, 9 and 10
Once the bodies have been drained, place we them in a humble space together by the sea. The room is nestled in a forest of thicker trees. Here--retuning to a conscious state--stare they out at the expansive horizon of blue-green water, backed by the endless sky. Redwood and cedar spores infiltrate their lungs and vessels even as their fascia limbers and reattaches itself softly onto bone. Re-wraps itself around each hinge and socket.
Feed we them easy soup of the earth. And their gut does gently mend itself. And the limbs do gather strength. And gradually begin they to take short walks together side by side, then hand in hand—as friends from gentle landscapes and softer tribes have done in ancient times.
And in good time, on this sabbatical, as if deception and dominion were relics they knew not, the candidates begin to speak of what shall be and of the first Tuesday in November when elections are held in certain states of mind.
DAY 11 AND BEYOND
By day 11, both candidates have decided to leave their aggravated teams—scarlet and azure—and will now run together as independents under the pretense, One. You will be able to find them there at the box on the First Tuesday in November, the year of our accord. We have made sure of that.
Neither candidate cared to be the chosen lead. And they have asked that their names be struck from the ballot. And thus will they appear there, nameless cohabiters of this party—who shall thus lead even as we shall henceforth lead together—For and By the People: One.
As for the discrepancies in aborted fetuses and the bending of gender mores and the allotment for and the use of armed force as well as the influx of migration into designated territories—not to mention what shall be given unto Caesar—its difficult to say. We’ve seen them meditating on these things in conversation. In quiet conversation have they met to work out their differences in good faith. And what will come from this? This is as yet to be determined here among us. As you and I are us and we.
What we have observed is their employment of an extensive retinue of artisans and craftspeople to oversee the making of large tents. In addition have they attracted the services of seed harvesters and those that till the earth. Their methods seem severe and arcane to the naked eye. And those of us here within the station are awestruck by the nature of their advance. They are given to less and less language in recent days, as walk they side by side at dawn and in the twilight hours. And we have found that this trend has garnered a quiet applause from among the elders in our group, who seem to welcome the intricacies of silence as they untuck the veil.
