by Misha Solomon
I.
The Om Argan + Tucuma Lip Butter is a tube that contains another tube.
Rather, the Om Argan + Tucuma Lip Butter is a tube contained inside another tube, but this latter outer tube carries the inner tube’s name.
The outer tube can be manipulated (opened, twisted) to reveal the inner tube, but the inner tube’s identity is always plainly identified upon the outer tube. The outer tube can lie, in that at any point in time the inner tube could be depleted and yet the outer tube would still advertise its contents. The inner tube, again, is the Om Argan + Tucuma Lip Butter and yet the inner tube can also not be the Om Argan + Tucuma Lip Butter, in that it can be used up entirely. The outer tube, again, carries only the name of the Om Argan + Tucuma Lip Butter, and therefore is not truly the Om Argan + Tucuma Lip Butter, and yet the outer tube can never not be the Om Argan + Tucuma Lip Butter, in that it always carries its name. It should also be noted that the Om Argan + Tucuma Lip Butter is applied to lips, which are essentially two tubes embedded in the flesh between the nose and the chin, two tubes that, when separated, allow access to a long inner tube that in turn connects to a near-endless system of inner tubes.
II.
The Aesop Resurrection Aromatique Hand Balm is a tube in name only. Before use, the Aesop Resurrection Aromatique Hand Balm more closely resembles a conventional tube, but the object continues to be called a tube even as it is flattened and warped.
The Aesop Resurrection Aromatique Hand Balm, rather, is a viscous liquid contained in a tube that bears its name. This outer tube, upon application of pressure, extrudes the liquid in the shape of tube.
The Aesop Resurrection Aromatique Hand Balm, however, quickly loses its tubal shape as it is extruded and applied to the hand. This would not be an apt time to mention that the hand is home to five tubes, known as fingers, and contains a number of tubes in the form of bones, veins, and tendons. Even less apt would be the mention of pores. The inner/outer dilemma, heretofore known as the Inner/Outer Dilemma, as explained in the discussion of Om Argan + Tucuma Lip Butter, applies here as well.
III.
The India Mahdavi Caran d’Ache Swiss-Made Pen is a tube contained in a tube.
Both the inner tube, the India Mahdavi Caran d’Ache Swiss-Made Pen, and its outer tube, the pen’s protective and decorative case, carry the name of said inner tube.
Complicating matters is the fact that the India Mahdavi Caran d’Ache Swiss-Made Pen almost definitely contains another tube, which in turn contains ink. Further complicating matters is the fact that the India Mahdavi Caran d’Ache Swiss-Made Pen has a golden tube, which, when pressed, reveals another pointed tube used to spread the ink, which is contained in the tube inside the tube. The doubly inner tube almost definitely does not carry the name of the tube, whereas the outer tube does carry the name of the tube. Is it relevant to add that the tube and its tube were given to me on the topmost storey of a large building, a rectangular tube, if you will, by a woman (remember the lips and hands, the tubes) who collects such tubes and who handed this tube over to me, her tubes grazing my tubes, after I remarked on the beauty of the tube, and that she did this likely because of her guilt over the dismal state of my grandfather’s finances? Guilt is in itself a tube, but I don’t know how or why.
Misha Solomon (he/him) is a homosexual poet in and of Tiohtià:ke/Montréal. He is the author of two chapbooks, FLORALS (above/ground press, 2020) and Full Sentences (Turret House Press, 2022), and his work has appeared or is forthcoming in Best Canadian Poetry 2024, The /tƐmz/ Review, Yolk, and Vallum.
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