The Book of Discarded and Soiled Mattresses

Nobody wants to hear the tales of or much less see ugly stained mattresses. Yet, each discarded pad upon which some creature has lain bears many stories. In one way or another these are too intimate to share. They are also unknowable narratives as the former nocturnal occupants are nowhere to be found. Few of these discarded objects hold the whispers of intimate couplings. More often than not these stains are evidence of illness, incontinence, and inconvenient discharges.

Then, there are those defective pads that have simply failed due to old age, wear and tear. Some have sagged, leaving hollow indentations, a negative imprint of the sleeper, not quite like the voids of the 79AD victims who stayed in Pompei.

There is scant evidence or hints to be found marked upon tossed-out bedding of the erotic. Those stains would be located upon sheets and pillowcases to wash out in the laundry, or gathered up by Kleenex and flung into a bedside wastebasket.

This is a simple gathering of mattresses that have been jettisoned in view of the public. Each sleeping pad has its own unknowable story. Perhaps I will invent an individual tale to accompany these images, one by one. Each chucked-out resting pad certainly has it’s own unknowable history.