Wednesday 20 April 2011

Grey gardens limited

The unforgiving freight-train pounding pistons and levers working weight to wheels on burnished sheen of steel rails bullets past the deserted station platform. I stand back in the wake of its irresistible come-hither suck of the siren's song. Breathless. I shake some in the cellular vibrations fear-soaked with fright hormones as they give way to a strange euphoria and the humming silence that falls somewhere just below sound. And the pristine snow compressed beneath my feet. Is cold a feeling, or merely an absence? In any case, I'd invalidated my ticket by getting off at the wrong stop and found myself stuck between nowheres without an immediate plan, except for keep moving. Zero bars, yet the obligatory screen alert of "emergency calls only" belied the prefixed promise of "mobile" to "phone". Even amidst the all-pervasive network of social infrastructure it's surprisingly easily to fall off the grid. I scoured the frost-framed schedules for pick-up stops amongst the off-season services. Luck, but not within the next five hours. Light fading fast on visible distance between steps.

4 comments:

  1. One thing I like about the ones I really like...is that they have a lyrical quality that I read just for the sake of hearing it in my head. Then there's a mundane detail that puts it into a context...and I have to go back and read it again...and it's totally different.

    If that makes any sense.

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  2. Haha, yeah it does, because that's the way they're often written - may I have an image or word I like and then I start building something around it and, before I know it, I'm somewhere different. After I post something I can spend may be two, three, four hours tinkering. So may be if you comeback and re-read something, it is, quite literally, different!

    On another note: my old computer's having trouble loading your blog, I don't think it can cope with too many pictures. May be time for me to think about putting some cash aside for upgrading.

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  3. I have now corrected some of the errors, left over from last night when I was too tired.

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  4. I'll have another go at it. I love the stuff.

    Your absence has been noted...and you're in luck. Most of the pictures I took in L'usiana didn't turn out.

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