A vanity CAT scan. He asks his doctor friend To apply the enormous Power Of her medical degree To turn the scan Into a 3D model. Contracts the model Out to a High end Print shop. High quality materials. A slick Milky white yellow Finish. Like Hamlet Could never even dream of He holds his own skull In his hand And asks Who the fuck he is. And listens to sad Shitty Alt rock music And leans backwards In his chair Into the sickening Waves Of a lost mind. The skull sits on his Expensive, Dark, Sharp featured, Wood desk. Day to day More or less In his right mind He grazes his fingers Over it. Stares into those Eye sockets. Runs his thumb Over the teeth. And presses the Base of his palm Firmly, Desperately, Onto the crown.
*The title, “Just a Joke, for Me,” refers to the occupation of the person who the skull Hamlet holds belonged to, Yorick, the jester.
I think this piece is interesting, and stressful, because can you imagine holding your own skull? To take something so vital to who we are, out of us, without taking it out. To know that you are holding something you are intimately depending on to remain where it is. To look into your own eye sockets without your eyes being in there. To run your hands over the crown like you would run them through you hair. Distressing.
It seems to me like the technology for this is already 100% here. It would probably be a lavish expenditure to have a scan done of your skull for fun so you could have it printed. That said, I know some friends from college who took part in studies that included a scan like this. I wonder if they could have gotten it rendered and printed for free at the ubiquitous university library free 3D printing room.
