The Hanged Man

I used to work a nurse.  I used to have to sum up my patient's condition by doing a "cephalocaudal assessment." From head to foot. Do their pupils contract equally when lit?  Can they give your hands a good squeeze? When you press your thumb on their calves, for how many seconds do the dents remain? What color are the toenails?

We can't do a cepalocaudal on this guy, cause he's upside-down.  The whole procedure must be canceled.  The apple is falling back up.  No dice.  He's not exactly compliant.  Maybe we should get a psych consult, because we can't be the crazy ones!

OK, just for kicks, we'll read him upside-down.  Well, first there's the cross he hangs from.  But...it's not a cross, exactly, since the mast doesn't 'penetrate' the horizontal beam.  So...it's a kind of non-violent cross. Or a 'not invested' cross.  A "T".  Sounds like "tree". Something that knows which way is up, with deep roots, head in the sky.  And this hanging-beam, like a tree, bears live foliage, there's still plenty of sap flowing. Not like the splinty wood from the Gothic passion plays of Immaculate Conception School...not their conception.

His slippers are gold, like the halo about his head. There is is light coming and going, no matter what color the nail beds. 

His red tights: his legs - what he stands on - are soaked in sanguinous fluid.  (Yikes!)  Except, guess what?  He's not standing on them - they are taking the place of his head.  So he is willing to sacrifice, to give away what he was standing on. He is assured in his groundless-ness, in his breeze-swinging.

He's also willing to put his feet where his mouth was.  To...well...not walk his talk.  Plus, notice his right leg - the one ascribed to correct action - is taking no action, since it's tethered. His left - amoral - leg is contracted, resting behind this decision to be passive.

He wears a sky blue shirt.  What's he got to be so perky about, especially with his hands behind his back?  He must be really off his nut!  But then...why is he smiling so serenely?  Maybe...because he knows that up is the same as down? That the tree, Great Nature, has his back.

Check out:

The Waking, by Theodore Roethke