Kleinzeit

No One in the Underground

In the middle of the night WAY OUT led to iron gates that were locked. The escalators did not go up and down, they were only steps. No one walked up them, down them. No one looked at the girls in their underwear, perpetual on the posters, THIS EXPLOITS WOMEN, said round stickers stuck on crotches, breasts. No one read the stickers.

KILL WOG SHIT, said a wall. KILL IRISH SHIT. KILL JEW SHIT. SHIT KILL. PEE KILL. FART KILL. SWEAT KILL. THINK KILL. BE KILL. LIVE KILL. KILL LIVES.

On a LEARN KARATE poster one man flung another to the mat, said in handwriting, Go on, let me fuck you.

On an Evening Standard poster a cartoon man rode an escalator on which everyone but him looked at the posters of girls in underwear. My job is stultifying, he said in handwriting.

The chill, the damp, the night rose from the black tunnels, from the concrete platforms, from the steel rails through the darkness. No one read the posters.

GRACE & BOB, said a wall. IRMA & GERRY. SPURS. ARSENAL.

ODEON, said a film poster. NOW SHOWING: ‘KILL COMES AGAIN’. They were all dying to come with him! On the poster a man in tight-fitting clothes aimed a double-barrelled shotgun from between his legs. Behind him naked girls lay stacked like cordwood. Around him ships at sea exploded, trains strafed by helicopters ran off rails, castles blew up, motorcyclists rode off cliffs, there was underwater gunplay between frogmen. Starring PRONG STUDMAN, MAXIMUS JOCK, IMMEANSA PUDENDA, MONICA BEDWARD. Also starring GLORIA FRONTAL as ‘Jiggles’. Directed by DIMITRI ITHYPHALLIC. Screenplay by Ariadne Bullish based on the novel Kill for a Living by Harry Solvent. Additional dialogue by Gertrude Anal. Music composed and conducted by Lubricato Silkbottom. Theme, ‘Suck My Lolly’, composed and arranged by Frank Dildo, performed by THE PUBIC HARES by permission of Sucktone Recording Inc. Executive Producers Harold Sodom, Jr. and Sol Spermsky. Produced by Morton Anal, Jr. Photographed in Spermo Vision, a Division of Napalm Industries. Recorded by Sucktone, a Division of Sodom Chemicals, in association with Napalm Industries, a Division of Anal Petroleum Jelly. A Napalm-Anal Release. Certified ‘X’ For Mature Audiences Only.

No one read the film poster.

Listen, said Underground.

No one listened. The chill rose up from the black tunnels.

Are you there? said Underground. Will you answer? No one answered.

Are you Orpheus? said Underground.

No answer.