wrioter.com

In the East there was an explosive WHAP
                                                                                        

followed by a faint sigh 

                                        an elongated whine                       a simmering echo

then a suddenShakePopBrace    Seizure

                                                                                                                                         

in the blue distance a shelf pointed its nose to the sky and rose up  up    Upright

  

it moved towards him    a fast wave slithering across the earth
a flat towering silver sheen   

                                              shimmering  wrapping the horizon

running before it he could feel its concussion in his guts
a gust  

           the flatland disappeared      shallowed whole

a warm pale mist and spattered mud tickled his patient face

  

then the shelf stopped

stood

fast

its sheening face ran up into a dark turmoil of clouds and heaven  a colored purple rose hue twisting up 
into where it vanished

since it didnt come to him

                                           he walked towards it

                                    

it appeared tethered
at the sharp serrated edge where it joined the brilliant green swathe before him

still swaying from the initial GASP 
and onrush

  

nearing its dull reflecting face he realised he could see inside of it

a backlit luminescence segregated into long irregular honeycombed chambers rising in atmosphere separated from his
a storied superstructure
                                         as if built by insects 
its parceled walls excreted by some biologic nature

occasionally moving among its chambers   those he could see   were jet black figures

they didnt appear clothed                                                                                                                 

                                             fitted  rather  by carbon-fiber or an extruded carapace

 

moving independent  they often wandered over to the face of the tall chambered horizon
                           

seeming to peer out

                                 vacant      unimpressed 
   

he turned around to see what they might be looking at and realised  almost nauseated where he wound his way through sheaves of broad grass  they fingered and brushed at his throat and chin  he left a telltale thin black thread where he walked

had the earth he stood on not swelled up and taken a modest altitude where the junction of the fields edge and the vertical plane met he wouldnt have recognised he had betrayed himself

as he had walked forward towards the monolith he saw the plants had changed  they had become fabric  tendrils  a keener cellulose than the simple veined grasses they had been

he didnt realise it then or even thought about the grass or the now hardcrusted ground as he walked

he was mesmerised by the suddenApproaching luminous plane

the black figures dawdling at its face held and manipulated tablets in their hands(?) rubbed or pointed at them with their fingers(?)
suddenlyhe squatted

                                     a new sense  devoutly separate from thinking
a figure was walking up to the translucent material directly across from him

looking up at it 
it was opened at its neck(?) its interior flesh(?) it seemed dappled by pindotted  phosphorescence he would have attributed to marine cephalopods  a vapor emanated from its back(?) and head(?) rising straight up  uninhibited by any currents of atmosphere within   if there were any

he heard faint clicking  although he couldnt recognise if the sound was without with him or from inside with it

the tablet it held in its hand(?) throbbed and strobed colored lights  which devised its shadow to the ceiling above it
the tablet threw quivers of light at the surface of the plane between them

he didnt touch it

when he held out the flat of his hand towards it he could feel prescient vibrations

looking down at his feet where he suspected a joint between it and the earth might appear  there wasnt  and for many centimeters away from its face the ground was denuded  scorched   and blackened

 

the figure inside stooped

it set the tablet down on the bottom of the cell

when it stood again it retreated into the chamber  its resultant movement  without the tablet  seemed hobbled  or blind

he didnt stand again until his knees screamed  and was troubled when he did
  

there were various lights of fixed apertures  or diameters  emanating from the tablet and they swept in tender unison one hundred and eighty degrees left and right  
diminished  for whatever reason  from sweeping in an entire circle

that space which wasnt swept was between him and the face of the plane

unless what swept him wasnt visible to his eyes

the figure did not return

he did not retreat

as night fell it was not announced or preceded by the call of evening birds or the intimate sound of insects

it was silent

sterile

sometime  well before dawn  during the deepest of night the lights quit sweeping

their rays shortened and shortened until they congealed onto the face of the tablet in susurrating bubbles  maintaining
a low boil as a syrup might simmer

their colors continued to emanate

blinked  reptilian

its monotony  and the day   exhausted him

his eyes fell shut

he struggled to wake himself

tried to make himself fearful

he failed

his animal needed rest

slowly he took to his knees

his knees took him to his side

he slept

nothing had wakened him

his eyelids peeled back

the sun was high  late morning  probably approaching noon

he had rolled onto his back as he slept

he had lain with his head near the upturned shelf

that was no longer there

if it had receded

it was not dragged

it seemed it simply ceased to be

the green land ran to the East

the grass wasnt tall as when he had come

the black thread that followed him wasnt evident either

still

        there were no birds or animals or insects

the sky was spacious  unscratched   deeply blue and cloudless

in the grass before him was a riot of vines interrupted by pumpkins gourds and textured melons   heavy
crushing whatever they laid on

a slight breeze washed across the land

                                                                              it didnt smell of anything

he stood

he realised he couldnt ascertain any direction until the sun began to descend

the land was flat

there were no landmarks

he might have assessed he was lost

but youd have to know where you were going before you could say so

unmistakably 

                        he was somewhere

   

                  

              

Thursday night Friday,  1  10.  15
2003,  Monday,  12  10. 15