Portrait

Room
Okay, so the room itself is an attic, with a half-spiraled staircase leading down back to the main floor and a general upside down “v” shape.. Call it 14 x 30, but that’s vastly misleading because it’s cut in half by the perpendicular ascent of the stairs and a big column, about which more will be said soon. At the foot of the stairs (the near wall) is a window, looking down into the yard and the quiet one way street on which the house sits. On the other side of the room (the far wall, yes – you’re picking up what I’m putting down), is a wood door painted red that leads to the back entrance and another set of stairs: wood, slightly dangerous, and sometimes (well, twice) pissed on after exuberance-granting liquids are consumed.
The far wall is untreated wood, which evokes halfass rusticity. The bed is perpendicular to red door, and about three feet from it. Well, futon not bed – it sits about 10 inches of ground, is a queen, and squeaks if physical motions between two non-combatants of different genders occur. Also not very comfortable, in addition to noisy, and of course the noise it does make during physical motions tends to cause mental discomfort or distraction as well, or so I hear. A blue comforter and green pillow sit on the bed. The sheets are cotton dark blue/light blue/transparent blue/white checked pattern sheets.
On the near wall side of the bed sits half of a desk, the other half being discarded due to space considerations. The half-desk actually looks and functions like an endtable, with shelving. In the shelving sit two large batteries, a copy of Emerson’s Journals, the King James Bible, Nietzche’s the Gay Science, a notebook, some letters to room’s occupant from various individuals, and Dreamweaver software that occupant has plans to eventually learn use.
The column in the center of the room mentioned earlier is oh, 12 inches from the bed. Its far wall side is probably 36 inches wide and 18 inches deep. The walls of the staircase connect to this column and extend toward the near wall, away from the bed. Two towels hang down from these walls, which at room level are about 36 inches tall. So, but the crucial thing to understand, is that these walls/ledges really make one aware of the upside down “v” shape of this converted attic. On the either side of the column, pick a side doesn’t matter, when walking from near to far or far to near, occupant has to assume various degrees of hunchback. Occupant is 5’9, and leads a charmed life indeed.
On the other, far wall side of the bed, is a tiny wood structure comprised of two shelves, respectively 4 and 12 inches of the floor. On the floor sits on alarm clock and the following books:

Conditions Handsome and Unhandsome, Stanley Cavell
Angle of Repose, Wallace Stegner
Never Cry Wolf, Farley Mowat
Webster’s Dictionary
John Donne’s Collected poems
Pastoralia, George Sanders
Jesus’ Son, Denis Johnson
Tortilla Flat, Steinbeck
Leaves of Grass
The Virginian, Owen Wister
v. III and V of Rising Up and Rising Down, WT Vollmann
Secret Knowledge, David Hockney
Miscellaneous education theory bullshit that is about to be either burned or auctioned – (is Ebay racket hard to break into?)

Also on the floor of far wall side of the bed: three beer caps (two Budweiser, one Rainier) eight cue tips, a pack of Parliaments (empty), an atlas of the good ole USA, Atlantic Monthly fiction issue, and six or seven scattered pens.
On the actual far wall itself, a dreamcatcher (Lakota) hangs on a nail over a napkin on which is scrawled a pro con list of two schools, one private one public. Below the napkin/dream catcher ensemble, a pack of cigarettes, empty, is nailed to the wall, partially covering a picture of an incredibly still lake that is 7 x 10 and a gift from a friend. On the side of the picture in red oil crayon the word “silence” is written, the result of an ill-conceived attempt at profundity after exuberance-containing liquids were consumed. I consumed, but did not write on this picture.
Next to the picture is the door frame, then the screen door (red door is open). Outside the screen door is the world. We aren’t going there any time soon.
On the other side of the door sits a plastic set of drawers, very cheap looking, which contains underwear and socks on the top drawer and books in the bottom. A sleek looking CD player sits on top of the plastic piece of shit. Bored yet?
In front of plastic piece of shit sits a coin depository that must have originally been intended as a bong: it’s glass about 12 inches high, and widens out at the bottom for sturdiness-type purposes. There is more but I am now done with Room.


Occupant
Occupant is sprawled on bed, with everything below knees hanging off bottom of bed. He wears a white t shirt Jockey, tan shorts Lee, white socks Golden Toe, a watch Timex, and has very tan skin such that if he were 6’2, stacked, and better looking the descriptor “bronzed” might be suitable. This ensemble is the outfit of choice 80% of occupant’s normal days. If cold, substitute jeans for tan shorts. On feet occupant wears moccasin-style slippers, an eccentric habit he picked from father.

Occupant’s mental/emotional/psychological inventory: yeah right. Even narcissism has limits.


Distinguishing physical characteristics: two cigarette burns on left forearm, two cigarette burns on right forearm, all self-inflicted on joyous occasions when young and immune to the idea that actions have consequences, very long eyelashes, unibrow, hirsute but not to the point of embarrassment, green eyes circled in light brown, two weeks of beard on face, offputtingly pretty hands but pretty isn’t the word more like well-crafted, which does and doesn’t make sense at the same time. Scattered moles, none of which are really interesting.




The songs have stopped. Only 2nd time occupant has listened to music in room since some time in April. Occupant used to be about the music, and knows not the reason for sudden vacuum.