Thursday, June 17, 2010

No Holes, Two Holes, Three Holes and Four Holes


The Devil

I am making a three-dimensional tarot out of 78 buttons. Do you have a button to contribute? I need a castle button, an anchor button, a hippo button, a palm tree button. A shell button and a bone button. A dog paw and a cat paw button. A clownface button and a red balloon button. A "collectible moonglow" button, obviously! Fake rubies for the pips! I have the first button already; this button is Self-Aware; it shows a pair of scissors superimposed over a length of thread. "Death" will be the button you choked on when you were four. "How did you get my childhood choking button?" you'll ask, but all childhood choking buttons are the same. When I do a reading I will shake all the little buttons in a bag and pull them out one by one.

12 comments:

ron hardy said...

Hi Tricia. I can't remember how I found your absolutely ridiculous site but I do hope the devil is soap because I want it for my shower. I have complete recall of my childhood and I never choked on anything. Can I have a food gagging button instead? Maybe with cooked peas on it. Also if I have a bad reading can I unbutton it? Ron

Patricia Lockwood said...

Hey, Ron! That devil IS a button, he can be swallowed but never excreted. Obvs.

ron hardy said...

That is a button? wow. The Self-Aware button feels scary, like a cord-cutting I think. So the devil might be in my colon?

Patricia Lockwood said...

I won't know until I do your reading! Anything is possible.

ron hardy said...

A reading! Yes. Should I brown-bag it? With 78 little signs will this be an all day affair? Will I be transformed by this kind of thoroughness? Still need rectal surgery? Or just become an allegory?

Patricia Lockwood said...

I once gave a tarot reading that lasted an hour and forty-five minutes--I think I also cried during it. It was the night of the Superbowl. I was drunk as a lord.

ron hardy said...

I can definitely eat while you talk. But I worry that nostalgic weeping will blunt my reading. This is serious stuff, oracling. Potential surgery, loss of self. I'm at a crossroads here. Or at the least stuck in the middle of sudoku...

Richard Epstein said...

Any lord in particular? I think I've narrowed it down to Screaming Lord Sutch, Lord & Taylor, and Jack Lord, but I am not certain.

Patricia Lockwood said...

DEFINITELY SCREAMING LORD SUTCH

Christine E. Hamm, Poet Professor Painter said...

Such a cool idea for a tarot reading! Also, if you're up for buying the buttons they have every thing every made in creation on ebay. Eventually.

Anonymous said...

oh. i thought this was your new poem. IT TOTALLY SHOUL D BE

Patricia Lockwood said...

Christine, I have extraordinary Talisman-Finding Capabilities; I am counting on those to bring buttons to me.

Ooo Adam maybe it is! Maybe READERS GET TO DECIDE