Flash bulbs, splash bulbs constantly snapping. Tongues cluck-cluck-clucking against the roof of a hundred mouths ringing a hundred muffled sloshes a second.
A giant with a fistful of chalky, gray stones skipping them all at once, fast as shooting stars across the night sea. Over and over again, producing ripples of whitewater.
Or just countless glimmering, silver herring bellies hopping and flopping like lightening bolts, lit by a full moon through sheer cloud cover.
Showing posts with label xip. Show all posts
Showing posts with label xip. Show all posts
16 September 2009
18 August 2009
( between ) two worlds
Like snowflakes, no two are alike. And like the artificial sleet in a snow globe, they drift idly in suspended space, quivering inside a living gelatin.
This flood of velum-thin salmon scraps is flushed from the dock back out to sea. One species waste is another's feast.
Thousands of gray specks bob on a swelling emerald and cobalt landscape below an evergreen mountain and cyan sky.
But my eye is drawn to the flutters, swoops, and dives of aggressive, thieving gulls. Black-faced with sharp ebony beaks, white-faced with golden beaks, white-faced with black beaks, or soot-speckled seabirds.
A little skimmer must battle the flocks for a nip of milky, floating flesh. Buoying on an air current he selects a target. He bombs nimbly and with a flash of flaps he dips his bill to emerge dangling a stringy treasure. He swallows in two rapid, choking gulps while fending off vicious competitors out to steal his prize. Bigger and stronger rivals attempt to stay a flight slapping their coral-red feet along the surface while those thoroughly beaten simply alight onto the sea.
Gulls that have gotten their fill lay alongside the frothy path that leads out of the bay with the tide. The crowd chatters and giggles like lunatics in an asylum. Cawing and crying as wings audibly cut the crisp yet faintly slimy air.
And on the other side of this transparency feed cannibalistic pink salmon, slithering amongst the powder in the snow globe occasionally breaking the plane between air and aqua with spontaneous, surging hops.
But a lone, fallen, ash-tipped feather swirls, dances amid the debris, peaceful between two frenetic, carnivorous, swarming worlds.
This flood of velum-thin salmon scraps is flushed from the dock back out to sea. One species waste is another's feast.
Thousands of gray specks bob on a swelling emerald and cobalt landscape below an evergreen mountain and cyan sky.
But my eye is drawn to the flutters, swoops, and dives of aggressive, thieving gulls. Black-faced with sharp ebony beaks, white-faced with golden beaks, white-faced with black beaks, or soot-speckled seabirds.
A little skimmer must battle the flocks for a nip of milky, floating flesh. Buoying on an air current he selects a target. He bombs nimbly and with a flash of flaps he dips his bill to emerge dangling a stringy treasure. He swallows in two rapid, choking gulps while fending off vicious competitors out to steal his prize. Bigger and stronger rivals attempt to stay a flight slapping their coral-red feet along the surface while those thoroughly beaten simply alight onto the sea.
Gulls that have gotten their fill lay alongside the frothy path that leads out of the bay with the tide. The crowd chatters and giggles like lunatics in an asylum. Cawing and crying as wings audibly cut the crisp yet faintly slimy air.
And on the other side of this transparency feed cannibalistic pink salmon, slithering amongst the powder in the snow globe occasionally breaking the plane between air and aqua with spontaneous, surging hops.
But a lone, fallen, ash-tipped feather swirls, dances amid the debris, peaceful between two frenetic, carnivorous, swarming worlds.
31 July 2009
jumping humpy
What's it like to see it rain falling on an unbroken ocean plane in reverse?
The drops rise unseen to break the surface, leaving dilating concentric rings while disappearing back into the gray mist above. But before vanishing they lose vertical momentum and slap harshly, crashing through the dark glass.
Impervious to rapidly transforming fissures and commotion above, schools hover below, almost frozen in time and space, except for a slight flutter of tails to maintain their position as the tide ebbs.
A select few leap high and land gracefully, sliding smoothly into the water with silent gusto. The rest arc awkwardly and crack the sea with a cacophony of smacks and thwacks as soft bellies are pummeled by the hard edge of the frigid sea.
My peripheral vision is full of inky shapes blotting the ocean and charcoal mountains. I can't distinguish between swooping birds and sailing fish. Both inhabit a space just mere inches above the undulating tide.
And when their silhouettes mix I don't know which has soared and which has sunk.
The drops rise unseen to break the surface, leaving dilating concentric rings while disappearing back into the gray mist above. But before vanishing they lose vertical momentum and slap harshly, crashing through the dark glass.
Impervious to rapidly transforming fissures and commotion above, schools hover below, almost frozen in time and space, except for a slight flutter of tails to maintain their position as the tide ebbs.
A select few leap high and land gracefully, sliding smoothly into the water with silent gusto. The rest arc awkwardly and crack the sea with a cacophony of smacks and thwacks as soft bellies are pummeled by the hard edge of the frigid sea.
My peripheral vision is full of inky shapes blotting the ocean and charcoal mountains. I can't distinguish between swooping birds and sailing fish. Both inhabit a space just mere inches above the undulating tide.
And when their silhouettes mix I don't know which has soared and which has sunk.
25 July 2009
18 July 2009
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