A smutty bustling metropolis,
城市 (chéngshì - city), a cacophony of sounds:
car horns, sirens,
snatches of conversation,
construction noise.
Towering skyscratchers,
⊞-deep geometry domes,
parce the himmel lijn.
⊞
"Geodesic grids,"
"Our shared home,"1 a fragile, finite stamm.
⟰
"Obey, consume, conform, function"
through gutter ads they live.
A beat-up old car, driven by an
OLD MAN, sputters past,
backfiring loudly.
On a nearby wall, barely visible,
beneath layers of poster detritus,
a faded image of a rosebud.
Ω
"Deception's jiggle,"
"as the truth goes bye-by."
⊗
"It's all a post truth show,"
"a ρrospiracy of shadows."
OLD MAN:
"They're watchin' ya\!"
"Makin' snacks outta your fears\!"
ANNA LIVY:
(Engrossed in her smartphone, barely notices)
⚹
(শীতল (sheetol - cool, analytical))
"Observing patterns, flows of energy and
மக்களை (makkalai - people),"
in this durban hive city.
Analyzing comms, keel to breakers
mapping stars on a wet benchmark."
_,-._
/ \_/ \
>-(_)-<
\_/ \_/
`-'
^1 "Our shared home": A variation on Fuller's "Spaceship Earth" concept.
"All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players." - William Shakespeare, *As You Like It*2
"The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion." - Albert Camus3
"An Enemy of the People" - Henrik Ibsen4
"Strange how potent cheap music is." - Noël Coward5
"God, give me the strength to change the things I can change, the courage to accept the things I can't change, and the wisdom to know the difference." - Reinhold Niebuhr6
"God's in His Heaven, all's right with the world." - Robert Browning7
"God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh." - Voltaire8
"You can't depend on your judgment when your imagination is out of focus." - Mark Twain9
"The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation." - Henry David Thoreau10
^2 William Shakespeare: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/56966/speech-all-the-worlds-a-stage
^3 Albert Camus: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Camus
^4 Henrik Ibsen: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Enemy_of_the_People
^5 Noël Coward: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No%C3%ABl_Coward
^6 Reinhold Niebuhr: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reinhold_Niebuhr
^7 Robert Browning: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Browning
^8 Voltaire: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voltaire
^9 Mark Twain: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Twain
^10 Henry David Thoreau: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_David_Thoreau
