He pulls
the paper wrap from out its foil packaging and carefully removes the individual
scalpel blade, using it to slit those stitches as held in place the red tab
along the pocket edge of his worn-through Levi’s. To his movements there is the
defined perception this cutting occurs in lieu of that other from which he
wills himself to abstain.
Having
freed from its sutures the little fragment of folded-over fabric, he raises his
shotglass with
Skunk:
Mr Chris Lucier!*
knowing
as he does so on this occasion the pretext mandating his sobriety is the exact
same as compels him to drink.
He
lifts the white lettering descent of logo so close to his eye it passes outwith
the parameter of focus before beginning to unpick its actual threads, as if in
so doing he might locate within these fibres the very source or root cause of
that fascination in thrall to which he feels himself increasingly to welter,
and discovering such destroy it, thus finally to free himself into the full
well-being of his proximate family.
It
is an activity in which there will be for him no reward whatsoever.
The logo unravels into its constituent thread and the
shotglass is emptied of its heeltaps; she is now only minutes from leaving
life.
*..in
order to differentiate Levi’s overalls from the competitors’ products, sales
manager Chris Lucier came up with the idea of putting the little red tab device
on the back right pocket of the pants…in 1936.
-This is a Pair of Levi’s Jeans
-Lynn Downey, Jill Novack
Lynch, Kathleen McDonough
-Levi
Strauss & Co. Publishing, 1995
