Delusion

Art is I; science is we.
- Claude Bernard

***
An empty alley. Swift streamlets running...
"It's spring!" they mutter, A girl shrieks with laughter.
A drunken red dwarf dances up. That's funny!
He won't let her pass. What's the old thing after?
...........................................................................................
Reflections beckon. The girl feels chilly.
A street lamp winks afar off... Oh, look!
The red sun has sunk behind a building.
Wild laughter. Splashes. Factory smoke.

Sounds, indistinct ones, floating nearer...
An old man coughs... Water drips... A pair
Of dilated eyes with no pupils in them.
Two cold, lifeless hands clutching the air.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Overturned tubs. In the streamlets merrily
The blueness dances. It's morning anew.
Red chevaux-de-frise. Soldiers cheerily
Splashing through the water: left, right! one, two!

The shoes spin along, but are soon overtaken
By a red cap. See it? There it floats.
Wild laughter. Splashes. In the cap's wake come
A beard, a dog's ears, and a red tail coat.

They rush past. What's the water murmuring?
The girl slowly wakes, in her eyes red-blue rings.
Sun beams playing, water shimmering.
Streams, sprays and spurts of it. Spring. Spring. Spring.
-Alexander Block, Delusion, 1904

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

PHOTO:

"Omega" & "Mont Blanc". Taken 30 December, 2006.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------