watercolour and ink on paper
The straw yard
The louche naked man with the COCK mask read the sign ten steps into the yard: The Straw Yard. What is a straw yard? This yard is very similar to the last yard, or any yard real or imagined: buildings on this side, fence on that side with a gate. And clutter, bits of junk that may be useful one day that were not discarded but placed at the edge of the yard. Perhaps the junk had had a life in the shed before being consigned to the yard, now it is rusty junk waiting for restoration or destruction. Or a new life as an ironic artistic icon.
The louche naked man with the COCK mask stands at the old phone box at the edge of the yard that is being used as a book exchange. Not very well as there is only one book, multiple copies of the same book. It is a children's book.
The louche naked man with the COCK mask picks up the book, remembering reading it as a child, many years past. Remembering a tale of a clever cock but the details are vague. There was a boy reading a book and in the book was a cock that was clever. No, the cock was lucky in clever ways. Just when the cock was about to get into trouble it would get an irresistible urge to crow, and the crow always saved him. Like when the farmer woke with a start and accidentally fired the shotgun shooting the lion in the bum, or something like that. When not reading the book the book looked out of the window which was like another story. The same people walked passed the window every morning and every evening. And every morning a girl about the same age as the boy came and sat under the big tree in the garden. And the boy wanted to say hi, wanted to ask her to play but was never quite able to so instead read another story about how the cock’s loud crow accidentally saved the day. And the boy wished to be able to crow. And the memories of tales in the book became clearer, and the memories of reading the book became clearer.
The louche naked man with the COCK mask had been the sick boy reading and rereading the book and looking out the hospital window at the passersby. A trauma pushed back to try to forget childhood vulnerabilities, to try to feel invincible.
The louche naked man with the COCK mask had a strange feeling the book, or the stories from the book, or the spirit of the book, or a reader of the book, was behind all of this: the COCK mask, the nudity, the House of Masks experience, whatever it is.
The tannoy cackled: THE ASS, THE COCK AND THE LION SHALL NOW COMMENCE.
The louche naked man with the COCK mask expects, like the last time, to play the role of the cock in another twisted fable and stands two steps from the centre of a ring of straw bales. Naked masked figures sit on the bales.
The sybaritic naked woman with the ASS mask sashays towards the group.
The poultry yard
COCK
The cock loves being amongst the hens.
The cock can mate a dozen times a...
