Monday, May 15, 2006
Fish Sounds
I am like a sea creature lurking in the depths of the sea and my bulbous eyes are constantly revolving as I watch slimy bodies swim all around me. Waves of sonic currents flow across the sensitive Antennae. Deep down there across the flats amphibian fish scatter as they sense a shadow creaking upon their ceilings, the currents shifting, a potential predator hovering above.
I swim low, wagging my elaborate tail. The little Escipodes and Flinchpods take one glance at me with their dots for eyes and sink further down into the gloom.
I do not say I am nosey but I do want to know what is going on, my ears alert. I concoct my fictions around their every movement and muffled vocal sounds. Each sound could be a new fish. Some fish are hidden and rarely come out and just appear as a faint shimmer of grey on the sea floor, hardly noticeable at all.
This evening I take a thirty degree diagonal trajectory straight down into the depths, letting oxygen seep slowly from my breathing apparatus as I fall. The large disc shaped salamander arhchipodes rest upon the sea floor like giant almond slices decorating the hills and crevices, their joint sound of hundreds of coughs, splutters and lettings off of wind becoming louder as I swim deeper, the bubbles rising around me, oxygenating the water. I touch one by accident and it nearly swallows me. I block up my air holes with my right fin which causes me to rise out of danger.
I press hold of my ears when I am passed by a glowing anti-worm with its spiralling horned drill tail using the strength of the current to pass through the water, drilling downwards, causing impromptu sounds of combined lawnmower and hand drill effect. They are so keen on mowing around this area. Every fish has a drilled tail to show off, a primax 300 or a detax 900. Competition is fierce.
The layers of apartments tower up into the sky but also plummet downwards towards the ground from up here. The echoing sounds layered one on top of the other scream past me and through me. Sandwiched as I am in between them I am entrenched, with the plasterboards barricading my head while occupants go about their daily activities.
