William Fuller

DIUTURNITY

With the help of ideas and things
we were able to complete the budget
on time. One fixed principle
was that all materials should be factual.
This proved deeply problematic
until one day our concept of facts
was clarified to include
any element that would allow us
to conclude our activities.
For instance, in forecasting
use of the Guest Dining
Room, we were able
to insert the following sentence
to explain the absence of numbers:
'Your job is to give everyone
in your group personal accountability
for transforming the culture.' Separate
categories were then devised for Job,
Personal, Accountability, Transforming,
and Culture, which were budgeted
accordingly. By these means every
possible circumstance was reproduced
on the machine, which printed out
a series of alternatives to facts
(the second iteration suggested
that facts themselves, as formerly understood,
were already alternatives to facts,
but this notion
was cut from the budget
at the third iteration).
Owing to such specificity, participants
were freed to recruit for next year's
budget season. 'Don't piecemeal it,'
we were told by a pair of pewter sconces
hanging in the engine room,
'Nonperiodic payments are payments
that are not periodic.
Loyalty is a treacherous thing
in a world of rapid change.'
With these last adjustments in place
the final iteration was submitted at
five o'clock on Halloween. The face
of the document had a livid
background on white paper.
 
 

THOMAS THE RHYMER

Sitting on its little easel
is a certified copy
of The Chart. The Chart
displays in careful detail the relative
positions of the Participants
in reference to the six or seven
floating centers from which
pulses of negative accountability
emanate. Outward and downward,
these emanations concretize
toward the base of the room,
building up sedimentary structures
where all activities subsequently
take place. Out of the sediment,
perches of various heights slowly rise up,
each offering access to its own
suite of views. That these views
are all to some extent obstructed by
posts, exit-signs, or other perches
does not lessen their desirability.
Looking out, one can inventory
the entirety of one's material
and can plan best how
to engage it. In this case, the
material's inherent obstinacy
appears to have effectively resisted
all attempts to dominate it.
But on further inspection
one notes with astonishment
that the material has somehow,
before one's eyes, shaped itself
into an intricate replica
of the royal bedroom.
There are marble walls
and a gold ceiling
decorated with formal imagery.
The work is entitled "Diversions
of the Insect World" and was
recently sold to a ghost
who leapt down
to become embedded
in its aspirations.
 

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