Moving but not gaining any ground
Climbing up the escalator as it takes you down


Elsa Wolman Katana, Baltimore Night, 2011

A Place To Be
-- by Nick Drake

When I was younger, younger than before
I never saw the truth hanging from the door
And now I'm older see it face to face
And now I'm older gotta get up clean the place.

And I was green, greener than the hill
Where the flowers grew and the sun shone still
Now I'm darker than the deepest sea
Just hand me down, give me a place to be.

And I was strong, strong in the sun
I thought I'd see when day is done
Now I'm weaker than the palest blue
Oh, so weak in this need for you.


The Inner Part
-- by Louis Simpson

When they had won the war
And for the first time in history
Americans were the most important people --
When the leading citizens no longer lived in their shirtsleeves
and their wives did not scratch in public
Just when they'd stopped saying "Gosh" --
When their daughters seemed as sensitive
as the tip of a fly rod,
and their sons were as smooth as a V-8 engine --
Priests, examining the entrails of birds,
Found the heart misplaced, and seeds
As black as death, emitting a strange odor.


Against Entropy
-- by John M. Ford

The worm drives helically through the wood
And does not know the dust left in the bore
Once made the table integral and good;
And suddenly the crystal hits the floor.
Electrons find their paths in subtle ways,
A massless eddy in a trail of smoke;
The names of lovers, light of other days
Perhaps you will not miss them. That's the joke.
The universe winds down. That's how it's made.
But memory is everything to lose;
Although some of the colors have to fade,
Do not believe you'll get the chance to choose.
Regret, by definition, comes too late;
Say what you mean. Bear witness. Iterate.