‘THE “WOODEN OX”, the “gliding horse” flourish as ancient roads disintegrate.
The wheel takes all the load, the narrow felloe cleaving clayey soils.’
Oiling the hub are the three poisons: foolish pig, angry snake, uxorious
dove. A potter shapes a dish, a monkey clutches at fruit, a swaddled
corpse is left in the fetal posture to await the next birth. Directors,
feeding on apples, and managers, tripping over roots, do endless battle.
Orgies are planned for the library. Like flies in a jar we bounce and buzz.
1st – The Wheeled Armadillo
A Maya child, forbidden to watch the ball game, is pacified with a box
of wheeled animals. Down the sloping lid she races a dog, a monkey, an
armadillo, a puma. Skulls roll but delicate llamas do no heavy hauling. In a
land without sledges and, as yet, no horses, the cart is still unknown.
2nd – The Wheels on Walker Mountain
Trekking uphill, they overtake a resting posse of cyclists; ten minutes
later, hearing panting curses behind them, they make way to let them
pass; soon they find them resting again … and so it continues. Then the
race down mountain fire roads, hub brakes burning the grease inside.
3rd – The Wheel of Law
A dynamic ex-farmhand installs a wheel in your lower abdomen. Turning
smoothly, it cultivates your spirit, 24/7 – or, reversed, the spirits of all
around you. The body evolves into a new kind of matter, able to fly to
paradise. If each race has its own heaven, what of mixed-race children?
4th – The Wheel of Time
The atheism of cinema: two flimsy wheels – little more than pairs of
flanges – obligingly carry their own lane, spooling ex gratia memories.
Promptly the projectionist fixes breakdowns, at the ready on his roadside
stool. Lovers at the drive-in check the rearview mirror for latecomers.
5th – The Reinvented Wheel
The Celtic cross is a survival manual: if collapse occurs we’ll need to
restart civilisation. A tragic occult history passes like a ley line through
the burning of the Alexandrian library and the torture and execution of
Templar leaders. Hub, hinges and spy holes qualify the tool for a patent.
6th – The Ferris Wheel
The Mets were losing to the Cubs when the stadium went dark. Our
mayor was in one of the swing cars, sliding from rim to hub, with
dignitaries from Beijing. Prior to rescue by manual cranking they could
see only traffic’s head and tail lights and the arsonists’ first fires.
All six – The Stolen Wheels
The magus rotarum sports a bumper sticker: Keep Suburbia Weird. A few such
beauties win converts in the showroom. All are compelling to drive –
tactile, charismatic, no trace of iron Germanic. On four towers of bricks,
the car signposts the couple’s destiny: a belated return to the hearth.
♦
Introduction to Six-Way Mirror | The Index of Hexagrams and Cantos
