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Phase I
As an experiment, a ladder was inserted
into the gaping black hole in the ground
that distinguished this farmer’s
mudfield from others’.
At first nothing happened.
But later on that day, upon returning to the hole,
the farmer discovered a puppy rolling around
beside it.
When the farmer approached, the puppy sprang to its feet
and assumed a defensive posture: Don’t come any closer!
In contrast, when the farmer pretended to leave
the puppy happily resumed its play.
After confirming this phenomenon in
subsequent trials, the farmer grabbed the ladder and ran--
all the way back to the empty farmhouse
where he’d grown up craving all kinds of love.
Days later, the farmer
happened upon the puppy, which had died
from exposure some distance away from the hole.
He buried it not too far from there,
in a spot that was selected completely at random
by committee.
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Ash Film
A bench by the seaside
Bore a thin ash film.
Sandworms squirmed in it,
Made uncomfortable by the light
Spine that propped a distant, unfurling smoke-plume.
Along the water’s surface skipped
Tiny paramedics, whose linked arms
And ghoulish features gave away the ending.
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