REFRACTED FUTILITY

“haw! hrr, haw!”

— the others

1.

don’t be lured by the phenomenal emptiness of leaves

study a composite, cloud-free view of the world:

the rain forests and rivers provide all of our needs

2.

our planet speaks a knot of properties

luminous details flash mating signals

through the night of mind

3.

inhibiting travel at the speed of light

the way up & the way down

are points of light crowding out the dark

an exploding quasar

4.

is the principle objective of humanity

an experiment with numbers

5.

data absorbed in loops and clusters

no single point of energy

burst & feeds on the word form

on the look-out for new structures, which may be old

getting high on the J-curve

6.

life disposed in packets: mud, quill, badger

species enter focus as high birds

track them to crystal & remeld the gradations

gathered around the fire let knowledge go

as words boil up, spoon out clusters

7.

make transfers by pressing eyeballs to the page

become the frame, the parameter, the signpost and road

leading to evidence: of stone heads, backs to sea

8.

ghosts of palms, conifers & mahogany

hang in the smoky haze of the room

9.

you are open, fields, a pathless way

look out from the corners of your eyes

10.

a fish in a forest on a fjord

no longer resists

Jonathan Skinner