It is unclear how many people died on the ground.
-Agence France Presse, July 01, 2015
We have heard of such news before:
a 51-year-old Hercules crashing after take-off,
from a Sumatra air force base into a massage parlor.
The plane had burst into a fireball in free fall
and crushed buildings in Medan, flames surging up
several stories, smoke sealing off fire escapes.
Out of the wreckage jutted the plane’s gnarled tail.
Fire trucks wailed, wailed for burning bodies.
Water gushed through the chaos of ambulance sirens.
On board the plane were military personnel,
their families, and (is it true?) civilians
who had paid a million rupiah each for a seat.
About a hundred forty perished, including a schoolboy.
Perhaps the boy’s teacher, mulling his absence,
would picture him in his uniform as she faced
the whiteboard, erasing the day’s lesson
while the school let the bell tear the air
at dismissal time; and his classmates,
saying his nickname over and over, would recount
to their parents what he had been like
and where his chair was in the classroom. Was it
by the window with a bird’s eye view of neighboring islands?
Before all these happened a tired client in the parlor
might have slumped on a bed that would soon catch fire,
his trousers hanging on a nail, his reversible belt
clinking its buckle against the wall from time to time
as fan blades overhead circled counter-clockwise with a drone.
Baby oil lavished on his back could have lulled the man to sleep
so soundly he did not hear the explosions or, stunned by blasts,
could have turned deaf, lost in thought: was there
anything that could be done or undone?
This was a future we already knew: we had seen it
like a blind masseur before this Hercules became a ball of fire,
who, having plotted the day ahead, would think
he could grasp the next hours in his head
as he fingered the hands of his watch.
- 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