ACQUISITION

by John Farris

After being unloaded from the truck and unpacked the masks

were lined up row by row and identified each

in its turn as being Fon, Bambara

or Senufo, inspected carefully for larvae then arranged

like with like,

the great Senufo

bird allowed pride of place in the lobby

due more to the sheer dimensions

of its size than to

the lifeless

snake dangling from its wooden beak, the

huge wings that cast their shadows over the entire collection.

How proud you were pointing out this mask or

that as being Baoule or Dan, the great bird the avenging messenger

of some god whose name you stumbled over

root and branch: a prize collection,

you thought, eyeing the rough-hewn wood, sniffing it for any

evidence of blood like the cork from a bottle

of good wine. That’s how you authenticate this stuff,

you said; blood. The stink of blood.

John Farris is the author of The Ass’s Tale (Autonomedia) and Sighting (Sisyphus Press). He has had work in Peau Sensible, Hokum, Tribes, and Up is Up, But So Is Down: New York’s Downtown Literary Scene 1974-1992 (NYU Press). He has read his work and performed extensively in New York City.