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4 Margins


by stephen hastings-king


Upper horizon[1]: the band of spindly branches that dwindle into cracks at the edge of the sky. 

 

Lower: an intricate formation of white lace snow[2] curled over segments of trees driven down, bent back and frozen in place by an enormous train made of wind[3] that roared in off the water.  

 

Closer: indications of the imperceptible but implacable[4] rising of the river

 

Closer: the physicality of handwriting; the permanence of error.

 

 

 

 

 


[1] Horizon horizon: The circle of contact with the earth's surface of a cone whose vertex is at the observer's eye.  The bounding limit.  The compass.  An artificial globe.  A broad wooden circle.

 

[2] What each snowflake is made of: marble columns, fragments of furniture, replicas of the whole inside the whole, driftwood and fences; octagonal sections of white gardens and dragonflies made of pointed scraps of metal and the entrance to a tiny basilica inside of which the narthex opens onto a enormous room littered with marble columns, fragments of furniture, replicas of the whole inside the whole, driftwood and sections of fencing;  octagonal sections of white gardens and dragonflies made of pointed scraps of metal and the entrance to a tiny basilica inside of which the narthex opens onto a enormous room.

 

[3] Air in motion.  A current.  Any degree of force perceptible to the senses. Atmosphere, usually parallel to the surface.

 

[4] Soon water will spill over parking lots and automobiles.  Soon it will float boats on their trailers into buildings.  Soon it will sink the tiny town beneath chunks of ice, straw and salt.  

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