From the window I can see it has already happened,
in the time it takes a tub of time to tip.
Lawn and pink impatiens pulled
inch by quick-inch under the lip.It tumbles down the stairs in practically
no seconds: me. My saddest shoes are flat as tickets
to an exhibit that’s just appeared.The lookalike lake is opaque as a spill in MS Paint,
as the yard before anyone saw it.
It takes my reflection under its wing.It is cake batter, panless, tempting each direction.
Invites the eensy clovers to change behind its towel.
Which is grey, drenched, immense, curiously
gritless, silken, impossible to lift.Maybe Google Earth has something, just here, to hide.
A vein in the brain blooped like a metallic-inked pen.
Or Celeste, Universal Dentist,
could be taking an impression of everything.I have always loved the little sharp-edged tools.
A natural assistant, I select a spackle
blade, row out, face almost in the starless,
rudder of a nose set to “hover.”
My idea is just smooth things over.(I’m not really talking to my husband,
who is, by the evidence, to blame—
plus, he’s busy trying to jerry-rig a barricade
with the cement’s own packaging.
Surviving fragments of the text suggest
we have less than twenty minutes.)That’s when I notice the ant
stepping into the slow surf, matte
Jell-O on a windless expanse—
Whoa there. Hey. Hey!
She tries to turn but can’t.Then, without a backward glance, her friend joins her.
It’s girls’ night out at Aquafit, with weights, Yes, someone has
in the deep end, and I am powerless tipped the carton
to stop them from registering. labelled “evening.”It’s easier once you’re in, isn’t it?
says the second ant, in pheromone code, to the first,
who sweats a clumpy leg-lift.
The shadows flex and lengthen.Whisked egg whites, soft ice cream,
blue smoothie, maple filling, wild
honey, ranch dressing, pudding with carrageenan,
barbecue drippings: a montage of pools
these gals have lapped before.I can’t handle it anymore.
I grab a dead leaf from fall’s waterfall Disclaimer:
and scoop them out. They are two tiny elephants pouring may
towing their haunches to the statuary. affect the
Time is speeding up as the cement slows down. Season.
If I wash them clean, they’ll drown.I should really stop looking, but, New Scene:
an earthworm spikes the surface, seamstress
pursuing her childhood dream of becoming megafauna,
a lake monster, and enjoying some early success.
She’s gained a costume’s worth of extra skin
like a hooded cobra’s crinoline
just by being in her element.
Who am I to play the skeptic?My gaze only solidifies her fame. A dozen more ants
wade in to photograph her body with their jaws.
The trap is more complicated than any of us know.“Should we be wearing masks?” This is the first thing
I say aloud. My husband, a man who cannot resist a homonym,
recalls a time he daubed grapefruit-scented clay
all around his eye holes. Though synthetic,
it parched like an afternoon of real sun,
the kind of singular experience statistics suggest
will add scenes to your life, stretching it.Lines like that make me want to clock him.
I have just the trowel, twitching its shadow The end
like a minute-hand over our moonscape, dripping. is coming!“Do you find it hard to breathe?” he asks. “The particulate…”
Yes, god yes. With all my heart.
We twang twin yellow bands around our heads
and secure our personal bubbles,
as the intercoms on aircraft instruct, “before helping others.”
Gravity, a rule I don’t especially understand,
is still visibly doing its thing.
- 115: SPACE
with A Sometimes
114: NO THEME 13
with J Toledo & C Tse
113: INVISIBLE WALLS
with A Walker & D Disney
112: TREAT
with T Dearborn
111: BABY
with S Deo & L Ferney
110: POP!
with Z Frost & B Jessen
109: NO THEME 12
with C Maling & N Rhook
108: DEDICATION
with L Patterson & L Garcia-Dolnik
107: LIMINAL
with B Li
106: OPEN
with C Lowe & J Langdon
105: NO THEME 11
with E Grills & E Stewart
104: KIN
with E Shiosaki
103: AMBLE
with E Gomez and S Gory
102: GAME
with R Green and J Maxwell
101: NO THEME 10
with J Kinsella and J Leanne
100: BROWNFACE
with W S Dunn
99: SINGAPORE
with J Ip and A Pang
97 & 98: PROPAGANDA
with M Breeze and S Groth
96: NO THEME IX
with M Gill and J Thayil
95: EARTH
with M Takolander
94: BAYT
with Z Hashem Beck
93: PEACH
with L Van, G Mouratidis, L Toong
92: NO THEME VIII
with C Gaskin
91: MONSTER
with N Curnow
90: AFRICAN DIASPORA
with S Umar
89: DOMESTIC
with N Harkin
88: TRANSQUEER
with S Barnes and Q Eades
87: DIFFICULT
with O Schwartz & H Isemonger
86: NO THEME VII
with L Gorton
85: PHILIPPINES
with Mookie L and S Lua
84: SUBURBIA
with L Brown and N O'Reilly
83: MATHEMATICS
with F Hile
82: LAND
with J Stuart and J Gibian
81: NEW CARIBBEAN
with V Lucien
80: NO THEME VI
with J Beveridge
57.1: EKPHRASTIC
with C Atherton and P Hetherington
57: CONFESSION
with K Glastonbury
56: EXPLODE
with D Disney
55.1: DALIT / INDIGENOUS
with M Chakraborty and K MacCarter
55: FUTURE MACHINES
with Bella Li
54: NO THEME V
with F Wright and O Sakr
53.0: THE END
with P Brown
52.0: TOIL
with C Jenkins
51.1: UMAMI
with L Davies and Lifted Brow
51.0: TRANSTASMAN
with B Cassidy
50.0: NO THEME IV
with J Tranter
49.1: A BRITISH / IRISH
with M Hall and S Seita
49.0: OBSOLETE
with T Ryan
48.1: CANADA
with K MacCarter and S Rhodes
48.0: CONSTRAINT
with C Wakeling
47.0: COLLABORATION
with L Armand and H Lambert
46.1: MELBOURNE
with M Farrell
46.0: NO THEME III
with F Plunkett
45.0: SILENCE
with J Owen
44.0: GONDWANALAND
with D Motion
43.1: PUMPKIN
with K MacCarter
43.0: MASQUE
with A Vickery
42.0: NO THEME II
with G Ryan
41.1: RATBAGGERY
with D Hose
41.0: TRANSPACIFIC
with J Rowe and M Nardone
40.1: INDONESIA
with K MacCarter
40.0: INTERLOCUTOR
with L Hart
39.1: GIBBERBIRD
with S Gory
39.0: JACKPOT!
with S Wagan Watson
38.0: SYDNEY
with A Lorange
37.1: NEBRASKA
with S Whalen
37.0: NO THEME!
with A Wearne
36.0: ELECTRONICA
with J Jones