Heavy Metal
by Heidi Ho
Imagine a bowling ball rolling slowly down forty-seven stories worth of reverberating steel stairwell in a downtown high-rise. At the bottom there is a choir of wailing women singing counterpoint. Imagine that bowling ball reaching each landing and bouncing off a wall or door and continuing down another flight of stairs. Picture that bowling ball accompanied by a big brass bell and a large sheet of unbreakable glass on its journey down the stairwell. While this is going on, outside in the dark a freight train full of squealing pork roars past the building and two marching bands collide at an intersection causing a massive traffic jam. The Moon bakes a crowd of cheering spectators. A man plays Beethoven's music backward on a piano rolling down a parkade ramp chased by an ice-cream truck with it's bells blaring. Across the street in a dormitory, the sounds of unbridled sex emanates from every window. On the roof-tops African drummers in three piece suits join in. All this sound forms into one giant throbbing vortex of energy, feeding itself, growing, pulsing with power. Godzilla the Conqueror, sculpted in sound, spawned of some primal rite. Sidewalks crack. Fire hydrants burst into geysers in the streets. Street lights explode. Suddenly the Roller Coaster from Hell bursts through the asphalt and winds itself roaring around the downtown buildings. The sky is filled with booming, dazzling fireworks. Mothers gather up their children, covering their eys and rush them indoors. There are sirens wailing everywhere. Car alarms are going off. People in panic abandon their cars and run criss-cross in the streets screaming and covering their heads. Security alarms everywhere are activated. A hundred thousand television sets flip wildly through the channels. Smoke alarms blare mixed with the cries of cringing fear and hysterical panic. Factory whistles scream in discord. Lightning-like sparks fly between the buildings. Thunder booms. People hide quivering in fear. All contributes to the overall 'music'. The clouds from the fireworks form into a vision of The Beast and for the finale, a tactical nuclear warhead is detonated 1000 ft. above the site in a glorious pyrotechnic light show and vaporization of everything within a two and a half mile radius.
That's a song I heard.
Way Out West © 1993 Martin Scherer. Venus & Mars © 1995 Martin Scherer. E-mail: Scherer@tesserak.net