This Work
By Martha Zweig
The cold orange hands of the
salamanders still wrap and
unwrap the baby he dreams he was
then long before there was any human family.
Then their work was just beginning on the
damp stones and mosses too.
He had to be as little strange as
possible. They were
making the world & working on him too. He
was warmer but less
strange than a moss or a stone
was, that saved him.
The moss worked on the stone too.
The stone worked
on him like a mind he
had to grow up to talk to or
dream to but without
turning strange. The
cold hands run over him.
They read the body he
dreams of as a baby's to the
stone. Before there was any
human family the work that make him was
this work just beginning.
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You know what's always charming? When someone makes an obliquely insulting comment about a story of yours in their own story notes. Kind of puts you off the entire fandom for awhile, you know?
My husband brought home The Animatrix last night and we watched the first five short films while I folded laundry. The animation is superb. Fantastic CGI humans better than Final Fantasy (and I'm wondering if the title of the first short, "Final Flight of the Osiris," is supposed to make us think of that). Not so impressed with "The Second Renaissance" -- we both agreed that we preferred the indeterminate history of the film, where no one really remembered exactly how the war between the men and machines played out. There's some really dopey science in here. I tried to rationalize that maybe it was the machines' own mythology, because I'd love to know what kind of creation myths machines would make for themselves if they became sentient, but it's supposed to be from the archives of Zion, indicating that it's supposed to be human records. I did love the philosophizing about how full a life one could live within the Matrix in the Duo segment -- the idea that maybe souls can transcend their environment.
If I were a month I would be: December
If I were a day of the week I would be: Friday
If I were a time of day I would be: 12:30 a.m.
If I were a planet I would be: Jupiter
If I were a sea animal I would be: a dolphin
If I were a direction I would be: Northeast
If I were a piece of furniture I would be: a bookcase
If I were a liquid I would be: Thai iced tea
If I were a stone, I would be: Turquoise
If I were a tree, I would be: a tulip poplar
If I were a bird, I would be: a Canada goose
If I were a flower/plant, I would be: creeping phlox
If I were a kind of weather, I would be: an early autumn breeze
If I were a mythical creature, I would be: the Lady of the Lake
If I were a musical instrument, I would be: a harp
If I were an animal, I would be: a cat
If I were a color, I would be: azure
If I were an emotion, I would be: giddiness
If I were a vegetable, I would be: celery
If I were a sound, I would be: G, played on a violin
If I were an element, I would be: fire
If I were a car, I would be: a big, practical vehicle with four wheel drive
If I were a song, I would be: In the House of Stone and Light
If I were a book, I would be written by: Madeleine L'Engle
If I were a food, I would be: chicken tikka masala
If I were a place, I would be: the Chesapeake Bay
If I were a material, I would be: velour
If I were a taste, I would be: raspberry chocolate
If I were a scent, I would be: frankincense
If I were a religion, I would be: gnosticism
If I were a body part I would be: the mouth
If I were a facial expression I would be: a wry smile
If I were a subject in school I would be: contemporary history
If I were a cartoon character I would be: Disney's Mulan
If I were a shape I would be: elliptical
If I were a number I would be: 11
I still have no cable. If you're trying to call me, send me e-mail first so I know to get off the line. If you're hoping I'll upload or download anything, not today, sorry. Arrgh.
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