Solara 16-25

 Going to speed this up a little more because I'm in a different space with the later numbers and I want to share them sooner. NOTE: Image 25 has odd typography because the model I used isn't versed in it. I gradually have gotten more into removing filters from the various models and letting it come up with what it comes up with without any other parameters. I guess we'll see where it takes us.

XVI

Good heavens/we should probably have looked at the weather before trying anything like this/it’s really hit the fan this time/we’ll definitely need the calvary/maybe the Royal Canadian Navy/at the very least some intrepid astronauts with a certain deathwish/we’ll need to fix the celestial reasoning and map the interior all over again/what a tangled web the spider weaves above us/we, the ants/we, the flies who thought that the shimmering grandeur was just a trick of our thousand eyes/now we’ve got some serious mea culpas to be giving out/they’ll make a big ol line and we’ll practice our serious faces again/deep, caring stares/this will take all week/

 

XVII

The globe was glass and shattered by a series of small pellets shot from a pellet gun/hard to know the assailant’s angle or destination/the world spins and the globe follows suit at a counter angle/like all agents of chaos/the pellet flies without any real agency/doing what he is told to do/by a master really no more equipped for the job/than the globe itself/spinning without a sense of dignity/alone on the dance floor/mind melding with the music/a song like no other playing/even the audience is disinterested/the cracks are already forming but for these next 3 minutes/everything is ballet/

XVIII

No thoughts and prayers undo the act when it was undone/they don’t put the python back inside the jar/spring loaded/always ready/have you ever tried to put a snake who has been shot out of a jar back into it for a second attempt/have you lived to tell the tale/you know as well as I do that there are certain things that are happy accidents/one and done and done as one/the jar must remain empty for the rest of eternity/there are consequences for our decisions and snake bites that need immediate attention/

XIX

nature was healing and then we built an Arby’s ripoff on top of it and had to hunt all the animals to fuel BIG MEAT/we were indiscriminate about what went into the grinder/what was boiled to a liquid state and shipped out in plastic bags/what was wrapped up and thrown under the heat lamp of progress/listen, I personally think nature was getting too big for its britches, but I’m usually the guy who orders the salad when I’m out/why couldn’t we get a bistro or something/and just because I work the heat lamp and slice the meat that comes across my deli stand, that doesn’t make me complacent/I have a family/I have a mortgage/I had dreams and look where they got me/why does nature get a pass/

XX

Where will they go/we don’t build the space to put them but/we don’t stop them from marching in on their hooves/planting their defecation everywhere/stinking up the clearing and/ laying down for ill-timed naps/I wish I had brought myself a set of pajamas and a pillow then/I could at least join them/cross the aisle if/you will/watch my step in the field to avoid all of the droppings/it’s about what I expected but/man, if I just can’t stop yawning/looking at them sleeping all peaceful/brings a tear to my eye/

XXI

Sometimes my shadow moves me/I think he’s working against my best interests/I’ll look in the mirror and he isn’t quite there/but I know he’s waiting/impassive shade of myself/silent observer/an agenda in the way he guides me as the sun rises and falls/and even when the lights are out/I can feel the fact that he is out there/ready to take over at an opportune moment/I am saddled with a fear so great/so profound/I will lay here for a while/in the absence of light/to think about my next course of action/pray for a cloudy day/

XXII

Give the unseen majority their credit/I suppose/from the covered balcony of the opera house/throwing their garbage on acts that offend/leaving the peanut shells and coffee grinds and eggshells/for the brightly-lit cleanup crew//each of these acts, a disappointment/ruined by screen time and gazing at their belly buttons/the belly button, a siren song/lost among the roiling current of smooth skin/an indent/the remnant of an umbilical bond/calls to these performers/the unseen majority lets loose their slings and remnants of processed, packaged goods/while we, the custodians, are left to sweep it up/ 

XXIII

composite/I am a single wheat plant/otherwise barren field/another full moon/illuminating my tendrils/somewhere/the sound of coyotes/eyes illuminating the dark corners of a field without anything to offer/my, how the hunger will drive us to the strangest corners of the world/even when the rumbling shakes the earth itself/somewhere the feathers of a molting bird float to the sunlight/somewhere the sound of coyotes becomes a trumpet and the plate is full of color and wonder/somewhere is never here/

XXIV

My light is ill-begotten/placed in spaces it has no business/shining/no business of emanation from the point of its origin/my light/like no other/in the left vertical third/like it is not quite wanting to be at the center of the image/still though/presents itself/presents my fleeting frame/cut in one minute/returning to the reel another/what I would give for some decent darkness/true rest/I haven’t earned this/maybe though/it’s deserved/

XXV

We’ll want the truth out of you yet/we’ll know just the way to get it/pry from you, one single tear of guilt/let the rest remain/you’ll need to save them/as we put your story through its paces/make detailed notes about consistencies/inconsistencies/fun facts to share at interrogator dinner parties/no, we don’t wear these masks at these/yes/our partners make fabulous spreads and never overcook the main course/we could/not be more alike/we could/not be less alike/we are a version of the other/in line/sorting itself/as we go through the song and dance prescribed by our forebears/long ago/