. A bathtub is a dead man, and the shallow, tepid water his wife.

. My brother is dead. He is sinking, speeding up as he approaches
the
middle of the earth. He lost his life to the accelerating force of
gravity,
settled into a smooth, uniform flow when he whispered, "we're all
dead men."

. When the drains of the sepulchers are opened, the water that buries
the
dead runs out, and the dead are buried below, flowing radially
through the
drainpipes.

. The flow does not remain in an even state for long: it cuts into
the flesh
of the dead.

. Why? There was a time we could buy and sell the sea, but we had no
need.

. Whoever touches a dead body causes movements in the air at the
water's
surface. An irregularity in the ripples will not let bystanders
mimic the
dead. This stands between the dead and the living.

. It is not an English saddle, not a set of ice tongs, not my
brother's
soul.

. Violent men are already consumed at death, so a little more water
will
approach the drain on one side.

. On the other, the wives of the dead are forbidden to remarry, and
thus a
whirling of the living and the dead, a rotary motion, is introduced
into the
flow, and their names are not cut off.

. Is that a cherry blossom falling through the sky, or a fleck of ash?

vortex postulates



steven j. stewart