The Unseen by Nanni Balestrini

Author:Nanni Balestrini [Balestrini, Nanni]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Verso
Published: 1989-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

25

It was a lovely day and the weather was mild in the courtyard at police headquarters there was a great to-ing and fro-ing of people in uniform and in plain clothes blue and white cars driving in and out very fast they made me get into an unmarked car me in the back seat with the guy carrying my bag next to me the other young one was driving and in the passenger seat the oldest guy with the fatherly look about him we drove off and as soon as we were outside I looked at myself in the rearview mirror my face looked dreadful my eyes red and swollen my hair dishevelled and lank my hands so blackened that I couldn’t even touch myself but more than anything I felt as if I had a layer of filthy slippery grease all over me on my skin on my clothes on my hair like the guards in that sewer down there I’d just come from

now I’m going to prison I wonder what prison is like I have no clear idea I ransack my memory for whatever I’ve read in the movement literature or the stories I’ve heard from those who’d been there but nothing much came back to me to help me imagine what was in store we came up to a red light the driver brakes through the window I can see a girl on a bicycle alongside the car one foot on a pedal the other resting on the ground I’d like to be riding around on a bicycle now too if I’d thought about it yesterday I wouldn’t have cared less I’d have thought that riding a bicycle isn’t that much fun in fact it’s extra work for nothing whereas now I was thinking it’s a lovely thing to do

then the light changes to green and the car drives straight on while the girl is still there stationary with one foot on a pedal and the other resting on the ground I’d have liked to turn round but I don’t I’m stuck between two policemen and my role is to be someone who’s going to gaol I can hardly turn to look at girls riding bicycles the oldest guy turns and asks me in a fatherly tone of voice if it’s the first time I’m going inside yes I tell him and he makes an apologetic face and asks me how old I am you’re young it’s a nasty thing to go through and shakes his head they’re always like that the older ones the younger ones are hard tight-lipped they don’t say a word to you if they talk to you at all it’s to give you orders you can sense the hatred and contempt but the old ones too they’re all the same thing they’re all the same at heart they all do the same things the same job

my role is to be someone who’s going to gaol now I was thinking about the comrades

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