John Ashbery: “The Skaters”

-14-

	Filling up the available space for miles, like acres of red and mustard pom-poms
	Dusted with a pollen we call "an air of truth." Massed mounds
	Of Hades it is true. I propose a general housecleaning
	Of these true and valueless shapes which pester us with their raisons d'etre.
	Whom no one (that is their weakness) can ever get to like.

	(The kidnappers had parked their automobile behind some black shrubbery.
	Meanwhile Doris all unsuspecting was walking in the back yard with her lover.
	Her father, the fire-chief, had told her he refused to have him inside the house
	But he was off battling flames that day, a mysterious fire having broken out
	At the Jones & Co. warehouse, the latest in a series of fires
	Which had the nerves of the whole town on edge. Hearing a noise, Arthur--
	That was the name of Lois' boyfriend--dashed into the side yard. Returning
	Around the edge of the clapboard house he was astonished to note Lois' disappearance,
	Already, behind the ragged foliage, on the back seat of the black Pontiac,
	Not wanting the gag to be thrust into her mouth).

	There are moving parts to be got out of order,
	However, in the flame fountain. Add gradually one ounce, by measure, of sulphuric acid
	To five or six ounces of water in an earthenware basin. Add to it, also gradually, about three-quarters of an ounce of granulated zinc.
	A rapid production of hydrogen gas will instantly take place. Then add,
	From time to time, a few pieces of phosphorus the size of a pea.
	A multitude of gas bubbles will be produced, which will fire on the surface of the
	effervescing liquid.
	The whole surface of the liquid will become luminous, through the fluidXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX and fire balls, with jets of fire,
	Will dart from the bottom, through the fluid with great rapidity and a hissing noise.

Sure, but a simple shelter from this or other phenomena is easily contrived.

	But how luminous the fountain! Its sparks seem to aspire to reach the sky!
	And so much energy in those bubbles. A wise man could contemplate his face in them
	With impunity, but fools would surely tdo better not to approach too close
	Because any intense physical activity like that implies danger for the unwary and the uneducated. Great balls of fire!
	In my day we used to make "fire designs," using a saturated solution of nitrate of potash.
	Then we used to take a smooth stick, and using the solution as ink, draw with it on sheets of white tissue paper.
	Once it was thoroughly dry, the writing would be invisible.
	By means of a spark from a smouldering match ignite the potassium nitrate at any part of the drawing,
	First laying the paper on a plate or tray in a darkened room.
	The fire will smoulder along the line of the invisible drawing until the design is complete.