Upon Seeing a Standing Mattress When one sees an old mattress standing vertically, leaning against a brick wall or a dumpster, it makes little or no sense visually or otherwise. Guttural and mental reactions to a discarded mattress are never positive, especially when the smell floats like a putrid cloud or stains are visible, especially identifiable discoloration. Can one reach a point of neutrality regarding a used up bed to consider the function of this thing? It was designed with a purpose which it undoubtedly has served, a platform for human relaxation, a surface familiar with both pleasure and illness. This is a discarded object, used up and rejected, absolutely devoid of grace or beauty and yet, there is a sculpted shape, relaxed form, the way it bends, a distant cousin to van Gogh’s painted portrait of an old worn pair of brown boots. This cast off vertical object, fatigued bed standing perpendicular to its natural state, marking time until it i...