another portrait

“In my youth” (he’d say)
“I devoted much time to the study
of Unicology, which is to say,”
(here he would pause to puff his pipe) “the
study of Snowflakes and Fingerprints.”
        ‘interesting’ (would be heard in response)
        ‘always something new then’ ‘i suppose you
        would never grow tired of something
        like that?’
“On the contrary,” (puff, puff) “I grew
so tired of looking at the damned things
that I moved to the equator, and I always wear gloves.”
“That,” (cough) “is where I began my studies in Art.”
        ‘ah… always something new there!’
        ‘ever-changing, it is.’
“On the contrary,” (puff, puff) “I grew
tired of constantly thinking of New Ideas.
Why, I even came to believe there were no
such things.” (puff) “So naturally
I looked for something else, and I stumbled
upon Panology – the study of Everything.”
        ‘ah well, you can’t possibly get bored of Everything!’
“On the contrary-”(puff, puff) “in Panology
there is only one subject: Everything!
so of course, that didn’t last long.”
“After that,” (cough) “I wandered the earth,
devoting my attention to any number of things -
worshipping Change – and living it too.”
        ‘oh…’ ‘and that’s where you finally found contentment!’
“On the contrary,” (pu-) “Damn. my pipe’s out.
Well, it wasn’t enough to keep me interested,
so naturally there was only one logical solution.”
        ‘and that was?’
“Well, I killed myself.”
        ‘… oh… and has death been more
        interesting?’ ‘yes, tell us about the Afterlife!’
        ‘is it exciting?’ ‘yes how is it?’
“Bloody damned boring, it is.” (he would say and yawn)
(here he would reach into his pocket for his lighter)
“Always the same damn thing…” (lighting up his pipe
again) “Everything’s always changing.”
(puff, puff)