Tuesday 6 March 2012

Maximus the ambitious amphibian

'Stand where you are, we let all these moments pass us by', was a lyric from a song I would hear bellowed through the speakers, on occasion. They would pulsate in and out as if they were coming to entrap me in this concave in the garden. I was afraid, very afraid of them. Billy, the fiend that had control of my whole livelihood every time he allowed me to feed and every time I would be returned back to my home. As I lay in my home under the sparse blue and black shades which always looked down on me, no matter how far up the garden I managed to go, is this a miracle? I would wonder what the stars were, if they could see me, hear me, feel me and wonder what their names were. Were they lonely, was it a sociable place up there? I would see Billy staring at me from above. Of one thing I knew about him, he loved me more than any human.

Alas, I was not comparable to this thing called nature. He would travel in a box of metal, which alighted with foreign sounds would make my belly nervous. The sounds would resonate through my sensitive ear drums. In his box of metal, he would carry all the 'important items' - the devices which allow them to define all the terms they are unaware of, as they read them, to colloquialise their standard language in a textualised form, as the electromagnetic radiation burns away their brain cells.

I used to love the art of reading, now I loathe it. Billy will no longer bring forth a newspaper for me to exercise and to dry my feet on. No longer will I Maximus the Amphibian, be allowed to ponder on the context of the novel dear Billy and his parents are reading. For now all the covers look identical. Phillipa and Veronica, the Kois tell me that I am simply exulting wasted air bubbles. For, I am nurtured correctly, my belly is always injected with that which it requires, my life is never intolerable. I will make little impact however, they say. I will never be able to travel like Billy. Never look among the hordes of scenery, the trees that collect droplets of rain and pollute the air an aura so magical. I will never have my eyes opened by an abundance of water falling off the peaks of mountain tops, as if to the clutched by open hands. I’ll never ride a yellow cab, cross the busy streets of Tokyo, glide along the waters in Venice as my reflection gazes back at me. They told me all these things were out of my reach. They told, because I was a small amphibian that there should be ambition. I felt otherwise. I have some dreams and I’m dreaming of something I’m sure that I’m capable.

Maximus died with the hour as he was not aware of the crossing the road rules.