Daniel Schonning

Bodies Moving about a Frame

Exercise One: Build a
five-sided box. Paint it
green. While still wet, cover the paint in
hair (lift and rotate to fill
in edges and corners, etc.). Add a door, then
jam it. From outside,
knock on the door. From inside, un-jam it—
let yourself in (though
mind your head). Make a
new box, following the above steps exactly (though this time, paint it red). Burn the
original (Box A) and set it aside. Cover the ground about your new box (Box B) with
paisley-patterned
quilts (ensuring, first, that the
red paint has dried, the hair
set, and the door [if opening out] has room
to turn). Set Box B aside (tuck it
under more quilts; place the bundle somewhere warm). Return to Box A. When the
vessel has cooled (but is still
warm to the touch), lie inside. Splay your limbs in an
x. With your thumbnail, notch a
zigzag pattern on one wall, where you would like a window.
Add a window. Add two minarets (Iraqi-style, robin’s-egg
blue), each affixed to a
corner, then take one away. Add a
door. Paint it green.