Dear friends, today I shall finally confess to you of a sight I witnessed on June 14, 2014, a sight so horrifying that only now, months later, have I recovered enough to tell of what I saw. (If you are faint of heart, dear readers, please scroll down no further, immediately shield your eyes from this NSFW horror!)
As you surely know, a monument to Edgar Allan Poe was unveiled in the metropolis of Boston on Oct. 5. While the bronze statue at the intersection of Charles and Boylston Streets will forever haunt denizens of the city, my tale of Poe horror takes you north, to New England Sculpture Service in Chelsea, Massachusetts.
I wandered into the brick edifice on a sunny afternoon during the 2014 Chelsea Art Walk and found that the expert metal casters there were preparing the Poe monument. This labor was evident because a version of the famous dead author, as sculpted by Stefanie Rocknak, stood in their workshop. The striding figure was as big as life, but, much to my dismay, missing its arms and head!
And worse, it was being pursued by a pair of legs sculpted by Ann Hirsch. These legs were as gray as death. And they were not just any legs, but, I was horrified to recognize, the legs and crotch of Boston basketball legend Bill Russell—with which I was even more stunned to realize I was so familiar that I could recognize them, as you can see here, despite being connected to neither chest nor head. They ended at the waist! With two metal rods jutting up where the body was severed!
I cannot speak of what this apparition might bode. And some of you will likely doubt my tale. But I assure you that I was in the best of health, mental and physical, when I saw this. Despite my penchant to indulge in tiny plastic cups of wine on art walks—to excess some say, but never trust a Puritan. Nevertheless, I pray that in all your days you may never stumble upon such a vision that so entrembles the soul!
