Monday, November 30, 2009

Physics

He and I approached each other along a thoroughfare.

I reasoned thus: "If I continue along my present trajectory, we needs must collide. But if I swerve (to right or left, it matters not which), he'll swerve too (to left or right). He's human like me, our fate is symmetry. Calculations of the rational animal... A gesture of genius is required, the genius of simplicity. To show for once and for all who I am and who he is not... Let me stride boldly forward!"

He reasoned thus: "If I continue along my present trajectory, we needs must collide. But if I swerve (to left or right, it matters not which), he'll swerve too (to right or left). He's human like me, our fate is symmetry. Calculations of the rational animal... A gesture of genius is required, the genius of simplicity. To show for once and for all who I am and who he is not... Let me stride boldly forward!"

And so we walked right into each other. We walked right through each other. When we emerged, everything has changed. I was now he, he was now I...

Quite simple, really.

Lament of a Much-Married Man

Always the bridegroom, never the bride...

Once

Once I was the victim of a fierce assault by my own umbrella. I barely survived.

But I did exact a most terrible revenge. I took the guilty brolly to a place which was absolutely dry. Where the air was absolutely still. And I folded it down...

Now all the rain is within.

Saturday, November 28, 2009

Request

Why is meaning?

"Poignant are the Memories of that Enchanted Night"

I smile as I write this, and yet there is no malice in my smile.

The Colour Green and the Colour Black...

were brothers. Thick and thin. One evening out, they espied a red antelope. They ran. The bushes came alive, the dark was fearsome. And still they stumbled, crying, through themselves. Green spilt his guts out. Dark collapsed.

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Who was Alexander Search?

Charles Robert Anon.

"far far away from anything and anywhere"

He's such a non-conformist he's almost a conformist...

Saturday, November 21, 2009

Dreams

1. I dream of a world where the world is made of language.
2. Where not merely the world, but language itself is made of language.
3. Where word is being, and being names word.
4. Where "is" is is...
5. Where I

Nightmares

1. A baby with a face like a football
2. Noon in the morning
3. Grass stained white

Friday, November 20, 2009

Transparency

Veil upon veil.

Interview with a Bystander

Interviewee: "Greetings, Bystander!"

Bystander: "Eh?"

Interviewee: "I'd like you interview me. Come and sit down on this chair here, with your hands on your knees. And get that earnest look into your eyes..."

Bystander: "I don't know you."

Interviewee: "Nor I you. And so being equal, let us begin. Where was I born?"

Bystander: "How should I know?"

Interviewee: "You shouldn't - that's the beauty of it! Sit down, stop fidgeting, and I will tell you. All you need to do is listen. It's not very different from being a bystander - passivity, attention to what is happening around you. You're quite well-equipped already..."

Bystander: (looks away)

Interviewee: "I was born in Utgult-Metchold on the 5th of December, 1314. In the waiting room. And then the war erupted. Seven days later, a surgeon who thought himself the bee's knees arrived to perform a miniature transformation on my left toe-nail which would render me immortal. But I had flown away, I was a soul by then. It can happen.

When I fell to ground, it was Thursday. I went and bought myself a Big Mac. You could say it has been an interesting life.

I like the colour red. When the praying mantis comes for me, I lie in wait, and I strike. It thrills those who like tragedy, and for the others, well, tough luck!"

Bystander: "Are you mad?"

Interviewee: "Without a question. I'm glad you asked, it shows you're getting into the spirit of things..."

Bystander: "What?"

Interviewee: "My, my, what an interviewer we're turning out to be! This is encouraging, very encouraging..."

Bystander: (walks away)

Interviewee: "Well, that was intense, but in a good way. I've learned some lessons for next time: talk more, listen less, and bring some rope to keep the interviewer rapt."


Interviewee: (yawns)


Interviewee: "What a beautiful day for a bystander."

Thursday, November 19, 2009

The Third Man

The third man was a snail.

Trip

I took the drug, and I waited. For what seemed like a very long time...

"Seemed" - that is the essence of things.

Flopflop

Flop, flop;
away we hop

over the tendrils,
over the top.

And never ever ever
never never never

skip to a stop.

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Anew

There are too many things in this world, and not enough names.

Let's go christening. Giubert! Warhorf! Sponiq! Treeth!

Dran.

Critique

What?

The Conversation

The conversation had moved in an uncomfortable direction, and we tried to pull it back. But it would not listen, it had a mind of its own. It moved farther and farther away, we found it hard to keep up. Soon it had disappeared, gurgling, over the horizon. We looked at each other silently, haplessly.

We tried ping-pong, but it wasn't the same.

So we trudged back on sad feet to where we had begun. We resolved to think about it, form our own conclusions. Why was the world in such a sorry state? Look at that speck of sky - so uninvolved in things, and happy to boot!

This was how it ended.

Sunday, November 15, 2009

What I Said To Her One Silent Morning

"The simpler you reveal yourself to be, the more mysterious you become..."

[Simple as a poem. Silent as one.

In this maze of deliberate fictions, one wrong turn must lead to dumb reality.]

Flight of the Ukrainians

"We're talking about the Ukrainians."
"Why?"
"It's one moment closer to oblivion."
"See how many times the grass has waved to us."
"This spot."
"Forlorn."

A Flight of Grey Birds

What does it signify?

A flight of grey birds. A flight...

Friday, November 13, 2009

Bumper Sticker

Reality is contingent, but idealism is necessary.

Friday, November 06, 2009

Whitman

The world is a footnote.

And what am I? I am a story.
How marvellous it is...

Ordinariness

What I write I do not recognize.
What is realized, when it is realized, escapes me...
And at the heart of all this strangeness, the silence of the world.

False Positive

Gladly gadfly

Eff Off

He made, of his life, a lie.