Read The Ticket That Exploded (Burroughs, William S.) Online
Authors: William S. Burroughs
“Written on the door pure information — Vast thing
police speak of a high condition, give you identity fading out — revolving lights is all — bread knife in the heart falling in the dark mutinous body without a shadow — Five times of dust we made it all — Relics give no shelter — dust trade — And those dogs knew nothing — Circumstances in the rawness of evening to give you? — smoke up the path — with such hair a colorless dreamer — brandy neat streaked with violence the door — solitude of morning washed to neon — Departed have left mixture of dawn and dream — leaning say good night under surges of silence, ebbing carbon dioxide” —
“Truly at this point many a one has failed — Mr Bradly Mr Martin is like pulp beside you — A man walks through dream shirt in another — Stopped suddenly to crown a God bending great sheets of magnetized U turn back to cool mineral silence — grey snow like bites of sunlight falling softly from noon — the naked good bye then silence — hints as we shifted masturbating afternoons through Ali’s body — Magnetic silver flakes closed your account — nitrous screens crackling, genitals spilling scenic railways in sleep — Recorders of the city rotting — vast music in the throat of God — Movie screens went out from darkened restaurants — Dream and dreamer took their way flapping dead sections through each other — Juxtapositions of light made this dream — It has consumed image between the mirrors — and the naked good bye since the recorders’ 1920 movie — (It will readily be seen nitrous flesh) — dust from demagnetized brain waves — The dreamer with dirty cheeks passes over streaked with violence — Pinball machines clicked wind chimes of subway dawns and turnstiles — roller skates, camp fire
and red fuck lights reflected over swimming boys — old Westerns rotting at the far end of creeks — Blue notes drift through slate houses and nitrous fumes — jissom cartwheels in a sweetness of aging roots — Light layers peel off red yellow blue to crown tentative beings with flowers — spectral smell of naked ghost people — A maze of penny arcades and mirrors reflect masturbating afternoons — Color and image bloom out of an old dream in the odor of outdoor restaurants — Outside East St. Louis in the dominion of aging roots, ten-year-old keeping watch — Cracked pool hall and vaudeville voices made this dream — distant coffin between the mirrors of time that meanwhile i had forgotten — in a deserted cemetery the body of a God bending his knees — Yes you have his bitter skin” —
“Put it on — Without you i on pavement — Good bye in the open air — Someone walking trails my Summer dawn flesh” —
“Panama night pictures explode odor of naked rectums — sweat flipped from his face — milk in his crotch — Young faces melted dead nitrous streets — Naked brain splintered on empty flesh — bleeding dream and the dreamer is lying there — last round — the body without a shadow, without relics — breath of the trade winds on his face healed and half-healed, in the rawness of evening”—
“Like, man, good bye then — Silver film took it —”
The dreamer with dirty flesh strung together on scar impressions exploded in the kerosene lamp — open shirt flapping in the cool path — now calm his face — The street blew rain from solitude of morning, mixture of
dawn and dream in doorways — surges of silence ebbing from the death trauma — Urine in the gutter weaves window people and sky picture through eyes of wine —
Evening blue over swimming tanks reflected ten-year-old keeping watch — in the kerosene lamp open shirt, erections — shivering knees twisted together — surges of silence ebbing from ruined suburbs — Naked youths came in wet sleep — windows people and sky like luminous flakes falling —
“Remember i was a battery of tape recorders at the door — Departed have left spectators involved — Good night under surges of silence since the recorders and movies in this point have failed — It will readily be seen beside you a man walks through screen — The exhibition reflected dominion dwindling — Photo flakes fell in swirls on our ticket — sound identity fading out — light travel — In this point many a one has failed — courage to go deeper and deeper into the blue — ebbing carbon dioxide — last terrace of the garden — Isn’t time is there left? halves of the human organism to give you? —
The sex area of the amusement park can only be reached through channels — Anybody applying for entry must submit to naked photographic processing for ten days during which the applicant is photographed in all stages of erection, orgasm, defecation, urinating, eating — The pictures are cut down the divide line of the body and fitted to
other pictures of prospective partners — The photos vibrated and welded together in orgone accumulators
*
— sex lines crossed and chartered so that memory tracks merge and the area is already seen when the applicant comes in — All sex acts that take place in the cubicles, Turkish baths, scenic railways, ferris wheels and pools where the subjects circulate in aqualungs are photographed and screens permutate partners divided down the middle line until there is no way to distinguish film from flesh and the flesh melts — For example two boys fucking in front of a cubicle screen can see their pictures developed after a few seconds and permutated with other sex acts in other cubicles half one half the other shifting back and forth speed-up slow-down line cutting the two halves apart to neon — through the open window trailing other pictures — Prospective ectoplasmic flakes welded
together with a blue torch chartered the mattress twisted and molded by absent memory tracks merged the masturbating afternoons — Reflected applicant enters and he is already boy who owned that room stood naked with erection permutations in his eyes — The sound and image baths dusted his skin in sense withdrawal swirls where the subject circulates through sensitized photos pulsing telepathic communication — permutating the neck taped on a silver line until the two being flesh melts body in electric waves — rectums merging a few seconds after blue movies and other sex acts with flicker ghosts shifting back and forth orgasms of the world — tentative copulations of light down the dividing line — sound tracks merged in a smell of KY and rectal mucus —A maze of mirrors and screens reflected sex acts in slow motion to a thousand sound tracks shifted and permutated — slow waves of orgasm in a muttering sea of nitrous film flesh — slow knees up to the chin now — prostates quivering in pearly spasms — limestone flesh over silver pools — encrusted music releasing picture flares in moonlight — slow smooth bodies to sound track of phallic statues — pulsing human skin stuck to faces and pictures in scalpel flashes — Adolescent ejaculated in a thousand cots — First spurts he could feel the tip process together — Tentative being struck drums of memory on his back vibrating focus flesh — shifting erect penis and half-remembered skin instructions to accent of the attendant — thoughts and memories of melting ice — the prostate quivering pearly spasms to his penis in London hotel room — Adolescent lust ejaculated in stale underwear of penny arcades — The canals reflected excitement slipping through legs — Cock flipped
out and up — Pearly spasms received and transmitted, nitrous flesh molded amber afternoons — Laughing suburb odors spatter out sound track — ejaculated in stale underwear filtered through encrusted odors of the world — Returning Mexican adolescent took my hand in room with a thousand cots — left muttering skin instructions to answer other thoughts and memories — Cock flipped out quivering in kerosene light — Old dead sound track shifting over you conceived in worn memory of first sex experience — Tingling implications try once more magnetic drums — Red nitrous odors spatter out sound track dummy to circumstance brown ankles — Ejaculated in stale underwear during execution, shirt flapping, pants slide — substitute excrement slipping through legs Almighty God with two coordinates immediately appropriate — We beg thy greased amber memory for the process — Pubic District Court vibrating focus flesh — half-remembered rectum on voluntary fertilizer tanks — youth grouped along the borders of melting ice — pearly spasms stirring skin instruction applicant — Dream flesh unexpectedly received and transmitted on smell of sewage denominationally molded to million dollar sale — at the earliest possible moment ejaculate in stale underwear almighty encrusted odor of three penises — Rapid calculations in room with a thousand cots warning combat troops — ejaculated with adequate military protection — First spurts touch intestine drums of memory — toothache punch cards muttering skin instructions written before explosion — Other thoughts and memories referred from quivering press statement — Adolescent lust broadcast
over a thousand cots — What awaits you on substitute flesh? —
Bradly was met by a white-coated Cockney attendant he had known some years before in a London hotel room by Earl’s Court —
“How are we? — Leave your gear here” —
He led Bradly to a room with metal walls that smelled of ozone and flash bulbs — Bradly stood naked under floodlights while the attendant took pictures — Full-length, close-ups, following the divide line down under his nose along his penis down to the rectum — The attendant made measurements chartering his body and wrote the numbers down in a note book —
“Full length now — That’s right — Turn around — Bend over — Lie down — Knees up to the chin now” —
Bradly sat in a booth and electrodes were attached to his skull and penis and lips — He watched the wavering lines on a view screen jump and dance as the attendant touched him adjusting the electrodes — Small microphones were attached to the two sides of his body the sounds recorded on two tape recorders — He heard the beating of his heart, the gurgle of shifting secretions and food, the rattle of breath and scratches of throat gristle — crystal bubbles in the sinus chambers magnified from the recorders — The attendant ran the tape from one recorder onto the other to produce the sound of feedback between the two body halves — a rhythmic twang — soft hammer of heartbeats pounding along the divide line of his body — He ejaculated in a wet dream of scenic railways —
The attendant led him to a cubicle with cot, washstand,
toilet and shower — He sat down on the cot with the attendant and the pictures just taken were flashed on a view screen that formed one wall of the cubicle —
“And now how are
we?”
—
Flashed a series of composites made by cutting Bradly’s image down the middle and fitting to half-images of the attendant — Discrepancies smoothed out by vibrating focus scalpel of the projector until one body was picture in a series of positions —
“Full length now — That’s right — Turn around — Bend over — Lie down — Knees up to the chin now” —
Lines of brain wave and electric discharge from erogenous zones appeared on screen shifted back and forth across each other in permutating grills welding two brains and bodies together with vibrating feedback — The screen shifted into a movie — Bradly was lying naked with the attendant on the cot — The divide line of his body burned with silver flash fire shifting in and out of the other body — rectal and pubic hairs slipping through composite flesh — penis and rectums merged on screen and bed as Bradly ejaculated — He woke up with other thoughts and memories in Cockney accent of that attendant standing there with a plate of food — saw himself eating on screen composite picture tasting food in the other mouth intestines moving and excrement squirming down to the divide line of another body —
Next day a Chinese attendant put Bradly through gymnastic positions on rings and hand-bars — the pictures repeated and cut in with composites of the attendant — tasting Chinese food the characters like neon in his throat — Other attendants: American, German, Spanish, Italian,
Arab, Negro — composites of all the attendants cut in together shifted and permutated through his body —
Now for the story of Bradly’s clothes — painted human skin half-inflated — worn amber rectum valve at base of the spine — Attendant took pictures — Close-ups wrote the ticket to yellow and blue dawn trailing Pan pipes — Slow discrepancies smooth unknown bodies out the projector until one body of sex position to the sound track melted — Now turn around and bend over for the story of absent legs up to your chin —Mirror line of his body burned with second halves shifting erect penis and rectums— pulsing human skin stuck to faces half-remembered— vibrating focus scalpel flashes broken glaciers and skin instructions — He woke up with other thoughts i have touched in accent of the attendant — Pools and canals reflected excrement mixed with flowers — story of absent legs up the tarnished mirror — In a rusty privy youth bends over — faint drums of memory on his back — green boy of broken glaciers and skin instructions — encrusted music woke in jungle sounds of pools and canals cross the drenched lands — clouds of color under orange gas flares — worn amber memory of rectal swamps — Place exploded in muscles — First spurts he could feel the other body slipping all process together — Tentative being stuck to his penis half-remembered — Hyphenated line of his body shifting the applicant awoke — erect penis and rectum different — the story of penny arcades and dirty pictures — Unknown body slipped out of sex position to grow on us — Hairs rub the halves — Electric waves loosen you up a bit — other thoughts like luminous snow falling through London hotel room accent:
“How are we?” —
Timeless in flash bulbs here — Electrodes were attached in bath cubicles and locker rooms — Body burned with silver flash fire ejaculated in a few seconds — Flash bulbs along the penis popped sound and image flakes — The Other Half fades in mirror of beating heart — feedback sound of wind through the trees —
The sexual acrobats balance a chair on high wires and ejaculate from the tension — They masturbate from bicycles on the wire from tumbler pyramids and in the air of trapeze acts — (In the penny arcade he got a hard-on looking at the pictures and Hans laughed pointing to his fly — “Let’s make the roller coaster” he said — We were the only riders and as soon as the car started we slipped off our shorts — We came together in the first dip as train roared up the other side throwing blood back into our drained genitals shirts flapping over the midway — boys swinging from rings and bars jissom falling through dusty air of gymnasiums — slide down into the pool of moldy jockstraps and chlorine ejaculating from the shock of water — ferris wheels falling silently through tumescent flesh) —