On nights when distant thunder
tore the canvas clouds,
Efedrina’s thoughts drifted far away.
“I miss the bismuth sun
and the overwritten sky.
The Wheel of Metâdia
is always turning.
The fire lilies drift skyward
to herald the summer,
and soft woolen dreams
become fish, fallen
from the winter sky.”
Once I asked her where Metâdia
might be found.
She told me it was equitemporal
between economizing daylight
and two divided by zero.
Efedrina pointed an impaled herring at me.
“How strange you humans are,
peering out through
high-speed fiber optics.
Such insipidity,
when forever’s shining
all around you.
“Furthermore,” she consumed the herring,
“Instants of momentary cleverness—
are they really what is needed?
Or are they merely…”
“Impreteritive,” I suggested.
artwork
Ambiguous Eucalyptus is a before-and-after image with a slider showing the increased effect of the visual evolution engine and Cyclic Nonlinear Desaturation (CYNDE) on a photograph of a eucalyptus in flower.
“Such insipidity, when forever’s shining all around you.” One of the greatest lines ever. Love this!
Thank you so much. That was the last sentence I added to the poem, I knew the feeling of what I wanted to say, and the words finally came.
So fish really are falling from the sky after all. Somehow, I doubt it’s edible for humans.
I first read about fish falling in a Murakami novel, not sure which one. I look at it this way: if fish are falling from the sky, anything is possible … although I suppose it could be a waterspout. 🐟
Hi Steve, your artwork reminds me of 60s psychedelia. Curious. I love the soft woollen fish …somehow I can really see them and the impaled herring is a brilliant humorous touch!
Thanks, Nikita (name habit 😸). Yes, it has a psychedelic look = software + foliage + a little bit of me. Apparently fish are one of my favourite subjects, and wool had quite a run a while ago, including for art. I’m almost it sure means nothing.