THE TUNNEL OF RUB
A small boat and its passenger, Rub Boy,
enter The Tunnel of Rub. Liquid flows from
pool to pool as the boat gently moves forward
into the membranous cavity. A bar of gold
sinking in the cushiony membrane at the
edge of a pool has sprung a leak from its
symbol, AUX. Before it a finger thrusts down
to squeeze a tube of ointment. From the upper
right a giant mouth emerges with its tongue
extending to present a bubble of pearlescent
spittle. A lit cigarette rests on the puckered
rim of the middle pool. Suddenly the tranquility
of the gently echoing cavity is replaced with
the rushing sound of a falling cascade, as
Rub Boy unwittingly floats towards the oblivion
of the lower depths. Untroubled by the Boy’s
predicament, Marlene, a nymph of the liquid
environs, fishes up a gold molar, loosened by
the neglect of bad oral hygiene. Will Rub Boy
be dissolved in the digestive fluid of the fleshy
interior? Will he care? Or will he abandon
his boat to swim back out to the safety of
the arid exterior.