#340 The Village of the Mind

is the product of medical
science, manifested in its
purest shape when a disease
is new. This introduction
of a virulent organism has
been depicted as a triangle
consisting of two episodes
of new millennium TV &
a contemporary yet timeless
glass & metal occasional

furniture range that displays
many of the empirical phe-
nomena associated with
predator-prey relationships.
Global extinction forces
languages to change. The
world's population of in-
sect pollinators is nearing a
critical point. Not even time
to lay out the winding sheets.

#339 The Domain of Arnheim (2)

It was Ellison who suggested they were prognostic of death.
           Edgar Allan Poe: The Domain of Arnheim

Magritte's love for Poe is
elsewhere evidenced by
a painting titled after the
Imp of the Perverse, &
the appearance of Arthur
Gordon Pym on the mantel-
piece in Not to be Reproduced.

One of each of those; but
this is one of nine variants —
oil or gouache — that has
the same title, painted across
twenty eight years. Not to
mention the guest appearance
of the eagle & its nest in

several other paintings. Some
doubt about the date of this
version. I like to think was done
near the end of the artist's life.
May not be true but there are
clues. A candle to light the way,
& the way the bird is poised as

if for take-off, tearing itself out
of a landscape it does not want
anyone else's hand laid upon.

#338 La robe de l'aventure

Dermochelys coriacea, the
leatherback turtle, does not 
have a carapace, looks 
like an overgrown okra 
pod with flippers & fins, 
but is the only thing that 
gives this scene the marine
setting it probably is.
                                     Other-
wise is floating in the air, 
above a drowned inconnue 
who is / likewise out of 
water as well as in it, out-
stretched on a beach & 
reaching up with her dancer's 
arms to form the mammal 
shape which has substance
only after passing by them. 

#337 Les objets d'art de René Magritte

a pair of diamante lorgnettes

birds that are birds, that are not birds, that are, sometimes, something else

clouds stolen from the opening of The Simpsons

death masks

Edgar Allan Poe

Fantômas

Georgette. Naked Georgette. Clothed Georgette. Incomplete Georgette. Always Georgette

horses' bells

inflamed euphoniums

jokes & jockeys

kiss. No, not the rock group but the Rodin sculpture. But not the Rodin sculpture, only the space it fills

lost worlds

Martin Luther & the King of the Jews

neologism, or at least the attachment of new labels

open-toed boots

pleasure that the girl gets from eating a bird

quantum leaps

rendering the impossible possible

sacks that cover the lovers' heads

this is not an apple, nor a pipe, not even a piece of cheese

using speech to show how speech misleads

victory is what was hoped for in this break in the clouds, even if they turned their backs
on the war & the victory came unseen

what lasts is how the lovers shared a space, not how they looked at one another

x-rays of leaves, the skeletons of trees

"Your dialectics & your Surrealism en plein soleil are threadbare," wrote André Breton.

"Sorry, Breton, but the invisible thread is on your bobbin," replied Magritte

Zeus. Anger. Hubris

#336 The Postcard

Chère Georgette

The apple is full, & almost ready
for eclipse. But the UV rays it
gives off are intense, & I've been
exposed to an overdose of them,
simply by going out onto the balcony
to see if the eclipse has started yet.

I should be wearing a hat, but
a bowler is not the easiest thing to
have on all the time. Maybe I should
have bought one of those embroidered
baseball caps that Donald Trump gets
around in & brought it with me. With
a different message, though. Nothing
as gauche & inviting hubris as his
hat has. Something simple, apt. Like
"un objet rencontre son image."

Ton mari
René

#335 A Taste of The Invisible (1927)

In this world of billions, we are
told that the entire global
economy essentially boils down
to just two idealized people, a
buyer & a seller. True theology

is not about the mistaken road
or a cold evening in cardboard
boxes. Think fresh pear, allocate
taste descriptors—sweet, bitter,
ripe, crunchy, peppery—but

any of those terms can equally
be applied to many other unseen
things. Macro or micro, there is a
commonality—once out of sensory
range, all things become invisible.

#334 L'okapi

If he truly loves the woman
he must wear anneaux ronds
torsadés en laiton oxidé in a
section of town that still shows

fleeting moments of animal
behavior. It's a weathered,
crumbling place, made all
the more magnificent by

trackless centuries filled
with polished pop & striking
synths, & the towering masses
of the Virunga volcanoes.

#333 The Beneficial Promise

Psychological research confirms the
headline that the trillions of beneficial
bacteria already in our intestines will
strengthen privacy protections for
the digital age. Not all such antipoverty
efforts hit their mark; but down-home
adages such as "real maple syrup
shows promise in protecting brain
health," when combined with the
original concepts of kindergartens,
reflect a truth in human development.

#332 Landscape

This was the year the
samba arrived in La
Côte d'Azur. Fashionably

late, as befits a traveler
with either a load of
baggage & a room to go

to, or else with just a
parasol & a promised
place beneath the palms.

#331 A Poster Project for the Affiliated Unions of Belgian Textile Workers

Myra was tempted into the milieu of the
sub-prime mortgage. World capitalism
went into meltdown. Crisis resolution
has since become extremely complex.

Grim door Of war

The Flowering Dogwood is some-
times treated as a separate genus.
Shuttles are often made of wood
from the Flowering Dogwood.
Climb a bell tower to get up close.

For it was the war-time work

The filling yarn is carried through the
shed of warp yarns to the other side
of the loom by finger-like carriers called
rapiers. A rapier loom is a shuttleless
weaving loom, bending the political system
at the center of the world economy.

Of the women Of the Brussels Lace Committee

Mule spinners' cancer is caused by the
prolonged action of mineral oils on
the skin of the scrotum. Shale oil was
deemed to be the most carcinogenic.

That opened the way to me.

From 1911 to 1938, there were 500
deaths amongst cotton mule spinners
but only three amongst wool mule
spinners. How could sub-prime
mortgages going sour turn into an
aging population of skilled women?

Bobbin.

A stationary package of yarn is used to
supply the weft yarns in the rapier machine.

#330 Le Sourire du Diable

Oedipus might feel intimi- dated. A giant keyhole, a tiny key. But that's what happens when you run home to Mother, no matter whether she's the legendary subject of a da Vinci portrait or the restoration of an earlier restoration of a heavy prog band out of Germany, known for the completely self-referential songs of the female lead.

[…not only to read the text & to look at the pictures but to fill the gap between the two with meaning — that is, to produce a plausible fiction that will relate them — then the key is to the keyhole as the text is to the pictures.] Alain Robbe-Grillet: La Belle Captive