Mr. Mark Linkous
It was summer, an unusually hot afternoon for a little village in Belgium. A bee buzzed against the window glass. The neighbor’s lawn mower humming somewhere far in the back. And the smell of sun on skin. I lay on the bed, still sweaty. I had raced to the city on my bike, bought the album, raced home again and run up to my room. And then I heard it, for the first time. “The only things I really need, is water, a gun and rabbits…” Saint Mary was the song. Sparklehorse the band. Mark Linkous the man. And the neighbor stopped mowing. The bee found its way out. I took a deep breath and smelled the sun.
It was still early this morning when the phone buzzed. A message from my fellow bird in the circus. “Close the shutters, tell friends and family to leave you alone. Seek silence. Mark Linkous has taken his life… Damnit.”
Years later. In Barcelona already. Older. Sitting back on a hot evening like most are here. Cracks in instruments. Dusty melodies. The new album is like an old friend coming over for a visit after many years of absence. One word, one look, one note and you feel amongst yours. “Your face is like watching flowers growing in fast motion”. I shared the words with a special one. We sat and listened and swept the sweat off each other’s foreheads. And hummed.
It is sunday today. Cloudy and cold out. And silent. Our army has lost one of its biggest war heroes.
I’m so sick of goodbyes. Indeed.
May he rest in peace…
Love,
L.
