Saturday, July 25, 2009

the inexhaustible variability of life
an unexpected cool night in midsummer entices people to the fairgrounds. it's a perfect night to go to the fair. crowds fill the dusty intersections. a smoky breeze carries the scent of cotton candy and straw. we take the ferris wheel up and up until we can see the town spread below us. to the south, a graveyard, its silent stones casting long shadows thrown by floodlights illuminating the ferris wheel. the cemetery is painted in a chalky grayscale, in sharp contrast to the cherries and marigolds and limes beyond it.
the boundary between life and death is demarcated only by the soft darkness of an unlit alley, into which light and hard edges fall and evaporate.
to the north, the technicolor melee of the midway, irrepressibly blinking and pinging simple patterns and melodies. the carnival rides shed a neon glow on the surface of the swell. the colors and textures of the dusky throngs shift and flow. equilibrium persists.