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auricula
hardship and deprivation. If
the ears had contemplated
their long journey, and not
simply shoved it to the back
of their minds along with the
rest of the nightmares, they
would have experienced the
Netherlands as a fish trap, a
fyke
net, whose long leader
was formed by the Rhine.
Those German ears that fled
west, designating the sunsets
the tantalizing answer to their
desires, stood namely on the
Rhine’s east bank sometime
in the spring of 1917 and
then followed the sun north.
Senseless with terror, lines of
these ears crept north along
themightywatercourse, fewof
them even sparing the time for
any disconsolate copulations
underway. None of them
dared venture beneath the
noisy, rumbling iron bridges
that intermittently offered
the travel-weary escape. The
extensive harbors in the larger
cities were a reoccurring
nightmare, since the ears were
forced to navigate along the
stone wharves’ undersides
down by the water’s edge in
perpetual danger of discovery
or drowning. A misfortunate
few that lost their grip were
fortunate enough to land on
driftwood, which overtook
their fur ther transpor t.
Because of the state of war
no-one was surprised by this
macabre sight, assuming that
the ear in question originated
from some enemy plane’s
dismembered pilot.