in the bilight
A pilgrim is journeying to Port Botany in search of coffee or a revelation, and the Spherical Polar Spirits, Altitude and Ascension, are helping him along with a little tough electric love. Part 1 is here.
Swerving water, a long slow
crash of breakers on the land,
as I journeyed in the minutes
of the bilight, when the sun
was yielding to the rise and stutter
of the streetlamps,
their denatured spectral substitution.
Around me in the street,
the blank façade of industry,
always less than its sum of parts,
and from the gloomy concrete,
Dalí’s mosquitoes, dystopian elephants
in chiaroscuro, were mocking me.
Before me in the raindrops,
I glimpsed a faint refraction,
the meniscal shape of a subtle gateway.
An indication, an alteration,
a new sentence, another paragraph,
and I went through,
but near enough to nothing happened.
My polar guides, Altitude and Ascension,
they stayed behind,
and above a nearby doorway,
an enticing neon offer caught my eye:
FIRSST CONSSULTATION GRATISSS
~/~
No, I’m definitely not the Medusa,
no, not at all,
and all her hairdo vipers shook their tiny heads.
I’m fully qualified, a therapist, a counselor
and confidante, so let’s begin.
She shuffled through a sheaf of papers
and poised a pencil.
We’ll start right here.
What’s the very last thing
you remember?
Those words, exactly.
Let’s fast forward, shall we?
She turned the pages hastily,
tossing them and tearing them,
their questions scattering and sailing
through the air.
What’s the very first thing?
A indivisible ether sea shining on the future,
so sharp it cuts the shore,
layered manuscripts of shale, anaerobic
physics and futility;
a solar railway, keepsakes long forgotten,
tiny insect motes,
cellophane rabbits with eye drops
glistening in the dew.
She glanced towards an ornamental
crocodile clock, and spoke to someone
I couldn’t see.
I’m afraid that’s all we have time for this week.
Who are you talking to?
to continue
about
- how mercury streetlamps imitate sunlight
- Dalí’s elephants
- Medusa
artwork impartial memories (detail above)
There is an urgency in the reading of this piece, Steve (for me, at least). Felt really pulled along by it. Perhaps the absence of Altitude and Ascension being felt.
Good (fast) work.
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Thank you, Frank. I think you’re right. Sometimes it’s hard to string cause-and-effect together. For me personally, an industrial ambience in the evening brings back memories of deadlines and urgency. I am hoping that the protagonist will find a little peace or at least a coffee eventually. For myself, the former is going to take a while. 😃
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at least the coffee, Steve. Get a grip, fella!
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No worries, Frank. I drink it till I hang from the rafters all night like a bat.
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That’s the spirit!!
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I especially like the sea cutting the shore. Glad you are still creating these amazing poems!
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Thank you, Margaret; a kind of … childhood memory, and I’m glad you liked it. Looks like I’ll be going for a while at least, I can’t really leave the protagonist hanging. 🙂
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Going where Steve?
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Just going onward in any direction, Margaret. 🙂
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Thank you for part 4, Steve. “What’s the very last thing you remember? Those words, exactly”. I think your therapist is trying to run to reach someplace you have no interest in. Hope you will come across another FIRSST CONSSULTATION GRATISSS sign 🙂
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My pleasure, Sobhana. Yes, it’s probably a bit unfair to therapists in general. I do think this particular client would be a challenge for any therapist, and that may apply to me as well. 😃
The hissing sign and the Medusa both came about because the ‘s’ key is actually sticking on my keyboard. Inspiration, haha.
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Beautiful, brilliant and clever as always. Your poetry takes me places I’ve never been before. Or maybe it takes me to places I have been to before, and forgotten. Your Medusa took me back to Jason and the Argonauts, which I read when I was about 10 – Madam Medusa was one scary lady! And the crocodile clock reminds me of Peter Pan. That tick-tocking croc is after all of us. 🙂 But there’s a lightness about your poems that pokes fun at difficult truths. Gracias.
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Siempre un placer, BG. I was thinking about childhood in relation to the “therapist,” and yes, that was the crocodile that came to mind. I think Medusa got a bad rap. In one version of the myth her “crime” was being raped. I’m kind of fond of her, and I wrote a story about her as well. Admittedly there weren’t many survivors 😄, but as long as she’s moderate with the snakes and the turning to stone, I’m good.
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Hi Ryrssyjia, I want to start off by apologizing that I’m slow as a wet week with WordPress. I don’t have enough time for it because I spend all my time complaining that I don’t have any time and apologizing, 😄 but I will get there eventually.
As you probably worked out, I moderate links. I think most readers won’t click on them unless there’s a reason to.
Anyway–Why look back when you’re going forward? For me, the catch with aphorisms is that the world is complicated and you can always find one to contradict another. In relation to the past, Socrates, “The unexamined life is not worth living” is handy. Sadly I examined mine and it scored an F minus. And the Buddhists: neither the past nor the future, it’s all about right now. I suppose in the end we choose what suits us.
Thanks for reading, Steve.
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Hind sites 20/20 yeah?🙏🏻 🙂 lol We are always moving. And forwards at that.. at least that’s what logic tells us. And man is what created a time table. But we truly move in a cycle (a circle). If we learn from the past, we slightly change and curve the future (morph and mutate), the now is the dance and joy that enables us to get though day to day monotony.
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Ohh yes, Hello Steve!! Your writings are pretty fantastic BTW.. a lesson in each one.. accompanied by various art work and history and references to produce a simulated scavenger hunt of curiosity and mystery.
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Thank you, Ryrssyjia. Life has taught me valuable lessons. Pretty sure I wrote them down somewhere. I’m sure they’ll turn up eventually. 🐒
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Haha 🤣
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Do Dali’s mosquitoes mock instead of suck blood? After all, doing both would require multi-tasking skills that no mosquitoes possess (as far as I know).
How interesting that the therapist introduces herself by saying who she ISN’T. If she isn’t THE Medusa, where did she get the hairdo vipers from?
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Hard to know, although even in fantasy we need some logic. Leaving aside any metaphorical possibilities, I’m imagining they’re mocking by imitation, elongated shadows walking with the protagonist. They have trunks, so maybe at some point they drop the camouflage and attach themselves like leeches.
I like to take people at face value, it’s simpler (as long as you don’t get turned to stone). Maybe … Ashley & Martin, serpent transplant. 😄
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Mocking by imitation… that would get mighty annoying! 😉
Serpent transplant? Now I’ve heard it all. 😀
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I think we’re so fortunate to be living in an era when new exciting things are coming along all the time. Mind you, a serpent transplant is not one of those. 🙂
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The God Pan.. Panic, pandemic…
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That’s who she is talking to… inspired to the creation of Peter Pan.. one of the only Gods to die..
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The Crocodile is significant in the afterlife.. and the underworld.. as well as the Egyptian history.
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The crocodile is the one who will eat the heart of Anubis decides that the heart is not worthy of moving on to the afterlife.
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*if
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Yes, I was thinking of Peter Pan, although somewhere or other I wrote about the crocodile deity. I wasn’t aware of the connection with Anubis, thank you. Anubis has fascinated me ever since I suddenly came across him downstairs in an almost deserted museum (in Copenhagen maybe). Must have been my state of mind at the time; he made an impact. It’s funny that we have so much stunning media to amaze our senses, but it’s all about us, and a dark statue in a dusty museum can do the trick.
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It is interesting to me, that in Disney’s Peter Pan, the hand is taken by the crocodile. And in the underworld, the heart (soul) is taken by the crocodile… now if you put those two together… The God Pan and Anubis have commonalities relatively… as cultures span across timelines … and Azimuths and Altitudes 🙂 (Mapping Coordinates) The Stars also align to the Underworld and the Gods as in the mythological world and Celestial world… the stars are named after the Gods and Goddesses. So back to the hand, heart, and soul…. “the hand is for Giving, not taking” … … I believe that is the ultimate idea behind the crocodile taking the hand in retrospect. That’s my two sense in putting my researches and experiences together Mr. Steve!! Blessings, love, and light….. it’s been a joy to read.
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Thank you for your kind thoughts, Ryrssjia. I appreciate your in-depth analysis. Layer after layer with possible symbology, and so many mirrors, multiple reflections of our humanity. Yes, we are the common factor that links over millennia, and I suspect that, in many cases, even the creators did not fully appreciate the meaning of what they created. After all, for much creation in the Arts, the subconscious plays an important part.
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Love this series, Steve, one of your best!
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Thanks, Jim. The original real event, the container spillage, happened quite a while ago now. The story has turned out to be a bit elastic.
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What an intense and heartwarming series.i read the pieces one after the other and felt dragged into it more and more at every word. Love them.
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Thank you so much for your kind feedback. I do enjoy writing the serialisations, particularly because I usually have no idea where they’re going. 🐒
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And as they say it’s all about the journey not the destination😉you might have not known where they were going but sure at the end brought your readers to somewhere wonderful.
Have a nice Sunday 😀
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🏝️ That’s what I dream of, at least it’s not too cold, thank you.
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“She turned the pages hastily,
tossing them and tearing them,
their questions scattering and sailing
through the air”- feel like how my mind works most days, I look up and expect a dialogue bubble. maybe I read too many comics. loving this series. life is as we know it, never understand it though.
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Thanks, Gina, very glad you shared your impression of those airborne questions. How I miss comics. And computer games. It’s all tick tick tick now.
I agree, and understanding is overrated. I say that even though I spend a lot of my time trying to do it.
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Beanos were my favourites!
I have given up trying to understand, just when I think I have it sorted, there’s a shift in the universe..lol!
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that was fun Steve! I look forward to # 3 then I will read all three again. You have an interesting and funny mind ehehh
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ops I pressed the wrong key> I also wanted to compliment you on your artwork, Beautiful.
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Thank you, Tamaya. I sometimes think it’s just a way for me to escape somewhere, or anywhere, like the protagonist; this one is turning out be quite a long journey. Glad you liked the artwork.
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This has a gentle feel about it, like being gently buffeted by weak but warm waves. Inventive as is expected.
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Love that image, I’m imagining and enjoying it. Perhaps a sensory deprivation tank on a slow train. Thank you, Paul.
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Let’s fast forward, shall we? LOL. THAT SMALL EXCHANGE WAS HRILLIANT. yikes, why am I yelling? I guess I was laugh yelling. Sorry. I do need sleep.
Oh my gosh, I am so loving this series.
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Hahaha hrilliant. Once I figure out how to pronounce it, I might start using it 🙂
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I love that word. I might put it in the urban dictionary: meaning dependent on context. If it’s preceded by “an” – “I had an hrilliant time”-it means brilliant. If it’s preceded by “a” – “I had a hrilliant time,” it means completely horrible. If it has “the,” you have to work it out from the speaker’s expression and tone. Thanks Vanessa, I’m not fond of long questionnaires.
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Haha you’re welcome
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Clever as always. Leaving me wanting and waiting for more.
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That’s how professional counsellors keep you coming back (and paying). 😸 Thanks, Rhapsody.
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Very true haha.
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