Pooler Jones sits front seat in the Mekong River Skimmer boat, his arms on the bow rail stabilizing his range finding Leicas as he glasses the island.

“Excellent, excellent…a fine job Slag! There’s not a bird inland. Not one in the trees, the house or the brush!”

“It would appear the team has been effective,” I respond.

“Indeed. Can you see how they’re all beach bound. Hundreds are congregating on every little point or spit. They’re trying to create a perimeter so they can see our warriors before it’s too late for them…highly unnatural.”

“Yes I see what you’re saying Pooler.”

“Let’s move ahead dead slow and close to 500 yards or so and study their reaction.”

“Aye, aye sir.” As we close, hundreds of birds take flight and move away from the island.

“Have you ever seen them like this Slag?”

“Negative, always before they would take flight and circle or land nearby on land or water. Now they all just fly away.”

“They’re edgy, disrupted and feeling pressure. Excellent.” We land the skimmer boat at Omaha and stroll the bird-free island. "The island is clear! Now we can work in peace. We can begin our prototype experiments with the Speculum Veeaye portion of our Rod of Jesse opus!”

“Yo Pooler, about the word `speculum.’ Every time I use the word in reference to our work around a woman she gets kind of cold and interrogative: `Do you know what a speculum is Slag? Do you!?’ I then respond that I know what a gynecological speculum is but the word is also Latin for mirror and that we’re developing a mirrored piece. It doesn’t seem to get me anywhere with them though…”

“It’s so fucking unfortunate that some shortsighted medical pinhead decided to Latinize the name for a tool. And then he names it the way a four year old would: `it’s a shiny mirrored thing!’ Women should be pissed at the simpleton nomenclature, not at us! I mean the tool is really a fixture, a holding device. Arcintentis machinatio (holding device) would be a better Latin name. Or inspection device—recognitio machinatio. Better yet it’s a womb inspection device: vulva recognitio machinatio. A VRM for short! That’s what we’ll call it from now on!”

“Shit Slag, mirror metaphors have been used extensively since the medieval age. Vincent of Beauvais the great medieval encyclopedist wrote the Speculum Majus (the great mirror) which was composed of four major sub-books: Speculum Naturale (mirror of nature), the Speculum Instructioni (instruction), Speculum Morale (morals) and the Speculum Historiale (history). Women shouldn’t hold our use of speculum against us. Our Speculum Veeaye is a crowning feature of our Jesse Tree project. It depicts the ‘click zero’ of the universe, the Punto Fijo! It’s the Christ, the Sacred Madonna, L'Origine du Monde all rolled into one! Chicks are just gonna have to get over it.”

“Christ, we’ve got bigger things to worry about. There’s a cosmic battle going on between the high and the low, the sacred and profane, heaven and hell if you please. We’re Alchemists! We seek the gold! To unite opposites! Solve et Coagula!”

“So does that include the redemption of the Devil Pooler?”

“You’re God damn right is does!”

“That’s what I was afraid of…so how are we gonna do that Pooler.”

“Why with our Cathedral, our Kenny La Roche work: `Our Lady of the Ligne.'”

“Fuck, Pooler, we’re back to apocatastasis again. This shit kind of scares me. I get the concept. I get the overall strategic principles but Pooler; I’m a tactician God dammit. Let go of your strategic vision for a minute and unpack your view of our tactics. I want a tac-ops plan.”

“Remember ‘Nam Slag? Charlie’s tactics? Same thing here: bait and wait. Charlie would lob a few RPG’s into a firebase at night (the bait), then run off, set up an ambush and sit tight (the wait). We’d send out a search and destroy team at daybreak and invariably find ourselves in a firefight with Charlie occupying the superior fire position.”

“Oh it’s totally clear to me now Pooler. We find a superior fire position, set up a perimeter defense of command detonated anti-personnel weapons, backed up with small arms. Against Satan! Yeah that’s it: We’re baitin’ and waitin’ for Satan! You’re out of your fucking mind!”

“You are such a literalist asshole Slag. Didn’t you ever take an English class in school? Read some poetry man.”

“Fuck you Pooler!”

“Okay, okay. Obviously the way to deal with the devil is not with claymores and M-16’s. You deal with Satan with Mythic Forms and Significant Symbols. That’s what our whole Jesse Tree piece of Our Lady of the Ligne Cathedral is about. Jesse’s Rod is a significant mythic symbol of the bloodline of Christ. It’s the fucking family tree of God incarnate—the sperm dick of God, you know? Shit, you start waving the sperm-dick of God around in-country, on-planet and you’re bound to attract all parties involved in the cosmic battle. Our job is to just get the parties together. We’re just the managers of the conflict. We bring together the high and the low. The resolution is in the hands of the parties themselves. Have a little faith Slag. We’re just doing our part. God needs us…just like we need him!”

“Amen, mother fucker.”