Dr Fixit (4281 - 4290)

 

4281

‘as this is dependent on the progress we’d make

in days or weeks – when ready, the pupils in we’d take.’

I open the floor for others to make contributions.

I tell them from time to time we’d meet for deliberations.

We disperse. Then I wonder if I should not

have mentioned the fire incident – well, a lot

the Information Unit had done, telling everyone

to be on the lookout so to the tower again I’m gone.

I look further out to the extreme end

of the lake wondering what here I could amend.

 

4282

Praying mantis? How could I really rein in that guy?

That wings he has or else I’d be his spy!

Some things just seem to have features

that make them evade detection without measures

and eventual apprehension though not invincible

totally but they stay long quite incomprehensible.

Then I remember Criminology is missing from the list;

I move it from my pocket and quickly delist

this from Unknowns and it becomes a department

specific to be chaired by a top police component.

4283

Criminology would devise ways on how to trap

criminal elements in whatever veil they wrap

themselves in – flying up with wings

or swimming underwater with fins.

From the sour look on my face, you don’t need

be told I’m sore with this praying mantis guy and his seed

of confusion he keeps sowing around our camp

and causing many a headache and cramp.

It’s getting real dark and up in the sky

are the twinkles of the stars; I try

 

4284

and move my focus from any ugly incident

in the recent past and gaze at the firmament

and its endless beauty and then, ‘Wham!’

lands the foolish guy on the windowsill and my arm

throwing a fist misses him at a tight angle

and the terror he sees does his nerves jangle

and he madly zooms off. ‘Nonsense!’ I utter

‘Why don’t you wait and the inside of the gutter

down below I’d make you see. Nonsense!’

I’m beginning to think the guy is really dense.

 

4285

There the scene ends and SCENE FOUR begins.

As provost, I’m sitting behind my table, glad within

that everything is going as planned and in a pile

are the accepted texts before me; in a file

beside it are names of teachers in every department

who I’ve examined and I’m pleased with their comportment.

I drag close to me the tome to be used in teaching

Criminology and the first chapter I’m reading:

'CHAPTER ONE. Definition of Criminology:

Criminology is the terminology

4286

'used to cover the learning about crime

and criminals which since the start of time

has plagued life at every level and form...’

Someone knocks the door and I look up from

the book and say: ‘Yes, come in.’ It’s Shootit Four

that marches in as she opens the door.

I pick an envelope on the table and dangle

it at her. ‘Take it and to the chief handle

and also tell him with your voice that forms

are out for students to obtain here in tons.

 

4287

‘The Academy needs to take in twenty million,

one thousand and ten students we’d build on

or rather, to add to the existing four million,

nine hundred and ninety-eight thousand plus we’d rest on

to carry out the task of sanitization

of humans around the jungle and realization

of a good life for all – insects, animals and humans

and see the world is greened with robust plants.

Admission day is first market day of the new week

and aspiring students the forms here should seek

 

4288

‘and after filling them and then they’re interviewed;

a week after, the results by all would be viewed

on the notice board and those accepted within three days

should turn themselves in to be taught best ways

to be pioneers of good in a rotten globe;

ones who’d show other fellows how best to cope

in warding off the rot originating from humans

who only in messiness would want to dance.’

With that I hand over the envelope to the messenger

and let her take it to the man at the centre

4289

of affairs in Yellow Lake. As she closes the door,

I close the Criminology text and pick the book of Law

but a sound distracts me and I rush over

to the rear window of my office, a chamber

quite large and on top a massive building

standing quite close to the tower and backing

the lakeside wall – the alarms are ringing;

a criminal has tripped one and chasing

are the troops – the firefighters too

throw the hose across but no smoke in view.

 

4290

Well, maybe the measure is preventive.

I watch. Only murder would be the incentive

to roll out the core of Elite Corps! I want to pick

my phone and dial the commanders but thick

is the battle scene – I see the firefighters

shelling liquid to the sky and I see things like saucers

dodging as they fly from the spurts of the water;

the battle to the edge of the lake is closer.

I forgot everything, lean on the window and watch

the battle scene and I’m seeing the troops rush