through an earbud while commuting
'typical' to those who know the type
but weird as Kafka to the rest of us
its characters barely human, all digital
electronic and druggie, muttering jargon
re-structured between mutterings
to prevent communication, the text
more thought-talk than speech
reflecting more time spent with computers,
television, electronic music and their own
unexpressed sensations, emotions, imaginings
than with each other, as humans
trying to become replicants trying to become human
in an unconscious ancient process
of approaching the Other
indirectly, denying and absorbing
without engagement
over the lake a rainbow rises on one side
of the roadway and drops into the lake
on the other, with red-blue-green-yellow
made by being seen at certain distances
but not at others, a reportable illusion
accelerating on a ramp, I notice a blur
in a blind spot, a suggestive illusion
that on braking becomes another car
allowing me to preview and avoid
one sort of engagement