The Wrasse and the Beautiful Breasts

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homestead: Theatre of Words THE WRASSE AND THE BEAUTIFUL BREASTS

description

A short fable from the 'Stories Having Stories' segment of the 'Fables' repertoire. A fish sees a naked woman. A woman regains joy and liveliness from deep within the ocean.

Transcript of The Wrasse and the Beautiful Breasts

Page 1: The Wrasse and the Beautiful Breasts

homestead:

Theatre of Words

THE WRASSE AND THE

BEAUTIFUL BREASTS

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the wrasse and the beautiful breasts

homestead: Theatre of Words Noël ChristianNyrang Creek2009

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There was once a girl not old enough to know that she was youngor sure enough of her hands and feet or confident at workbut she admired the ocean and the feel of sun on waterand the greatness where the depths looked up and reached toward the earthand although she was very shy and did now know her fellowsshe drove up every weekend to where she kept a little boatand she went out to the reefside where the ocean has its doors.She was not beautiful in daily dresses or apparelbut when she became naked all her bones and skin and musclefell back to the shape of marvels like hot monuments and spice.

The wonder of it frightened her to be modest with herselfbut one morning on the water with no one there around hershe undressed herself down to skin and felt honey from the suncreep on her face and eyelids and the fatness of her nipplesand lay upon her spine and back and her belly and her knees.

honey from the sun

frightened her

no one there around her

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There was a Humpheaded Wrasse in the rubble of the reefsidelooking down to nudge the sand apart for shells and little crabs.His lips were tough and his body was black and he had a stripelike a licking tongue of moonlight as a belt upon his sides.It was his place to enter both the dark and pretty watersand go in amongst the seaweed and the coral and the rocksand he knew many lovely things and he knew the shape of lightand he detected a shift through the prism of the waterand a falling from the surface that was not the sky or sunbut that lay upon the sandbank and turned it into atomsglittering like the sudden scales of a phosphorescent fishand he swam upwards in a spiral round and round the brillianceuntil he reached farther up than he had ever dared to feeland the top of all the oceans was just a puff above himand a bubble’s width of distance lay between him and the airand above him he saw the girl and the beauty of her breastswas the weight and the contentment of all the fish and oceanand the motion of the planets and the moonlight and the tideand sensation like a ripple or purity of waterwas throughout his blood and body as a pouring down of awethat to such a flesh the blessing of the universe had comeand all his fins were moving and he was living and in love.

It was his place to enter both the dark and pretty waters2

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The girl was upright and supple in the balance of the boat not

l o o k i n g a n d n o t breathing but w i t h i n t h e t h r i l l o f b r e a t h i n g a n d t h e quietness that l a y s w i t h i n t h e liquids of the world but as she sat there a central place perfect in her rib-bones began to feel a heat that rose from a tiny point inside until her chest was burning and her

p u l s e involved t h e

knowledge of a love nearby that looked at her and loved her in itself

The girl was upright and supple in the balance of the boatnot looking and not breathing but within the thrill of breathingand the quietness that lays within the liquids of the worldbut as she sat there a central place perfect in her rib-bonesbegan to feel a heat that rose from a tiny point insideuntil her chest was burning and her pulse involved the knowledgeof a love nearby that looked at her and loved her in itselfand her heart came from her body and waited for a momentin the lovely sunlight air between the midpoint of her breastsand it slipped down to the water and entered without noisesand lay where the waves were very small and just upon its back

and then there was a flicker as the sea took on its powerand brought the heart beside the Wrasse right next to his hump-

browed head

and then the both of them turned about and swam down to the reef.They came first to a place where all the shadows of the surfacewere laid across the reef-top like lines of charcoal onto barkand there was glass and metal there and discarded types of phonesand splinters made of plastic and collars that waved in the swelland sometimes things with writing and sometimes carvings made with stoneand they went another level and entered populationsthat were colourful and fast to watch or harsh and hard to seeand some had the shape of creatures more gentle than their natureand some had a shape of plants or twigs and some looked like the sandand nothing there was clearer but that everything had changesaccording to the daytime light that washed all the waters clean

loved her in itself

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and now they went down deeper to where the Wrasse had never goneor even let such water touch or feel tight upon his gillsand there was nothing lighted there and nothing was determinedexcept by the taste of water and fishes with a purposemoved in close to go on past and be unknowable againand at last they reached the deepest place that they could dare to goon the margins of the darkness and the edges of the coldand the songs and sudden cryings of very distant voicescame to them at intervals and otherwise from the silencewas nourishment that flowed over them and onward without end.

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Wrasse

fishes with a purpose

distant voicessilence

water

margins of the darkness

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Afterwards when she had come to get dressed again and tidyand when she had returned to shore and back to daily livingshe came to feel in the mornings more gentle to her fingersand more trustful of her foot-soles and the toes with which she stoodand she dumped away her clothing for cloth that was more lovelyand wrapped her in a subtle fold and moved equal to her breath.And she left her job to become a narrator to childrenand tell stories on the footpaths for the people going byand sometimes now they stop for her with things they have imaginedand sometimes they tell each other of the things they heard from her.

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dressed again and tidy

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