Cuba

Death of a salesman, Miller. Death from a salesman, Greene. Cuba is Cuba is Cuba, Stein (imitated by Greene). Havana, our man in. Wormold, Jim. A vacuum cleaner salesman, 'anxious, crisscrossed [with worry] and fortyish', in a city of power cuts. People stand or sit, die or leave; invent, experiment, drink. Reality is not faced. The journey once commenced must be finished alone. Anything is possible and nothing is unimportant. A footnote.

Picture credit: Small Stores, Cuba, January 1981, Martha Rosler (source: WikiArt).

See Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene.

From journal, August 2023.

Desert World

Man, a few domestic animals. A desert world – concrete, plastic – peopled mostly by robots. It has replaced the poisonous forest, and destroyed, too, the land born of rocks, of harsh extremes. Every life these supported killed. The house Jack built spread disease. Now, even Jack is dead. Though pages still lie unread, waiting to be misinterpreted. Unless … perhaps … A.I. allows Nature its own methods.

Picture credit: Desert Tram, 1997, Jacek Yerka (source: WikiArt).

Written August 2023.

Mirror

A mirror confirms my existence, captures my breath, a trembling eye, the very fact of me. Still here then.

A mirror traps or contains. Fear. Safety. An entrance, an exit. To a world known or unknown. Where occasionally panicked crows choke the sky. Mirrored words, said and unsaid, rising, flapping.

A mirror is all inwardness. A Keeper of Change.

Picture credit: The Mirror, 1885, William Merritt Chase (source: WikiArt).

Acknowledgement to Simon Armitage.

From journal, July 2023.

Left

Always turning left when told to head straight. Always turning left when told to go right. Always turning left in every area of life. Even the body follows that command, go left, go left. Unusual. Uncommon. Atypical. Natural or imposed, against impulse. Always left. The hand that writes, the leg that leads. An alien landscape for so many.

Picture credit: Woman with a Parasol, also known as Study of a Figure Outdoors Facing Left, 1886, Claude Monet (source: WikiArt).

From journal, July 2023.