PASSION FLOWERS AND PUZZELBOXES

Scientists and poets alike

have yet to find

whether certain experimental hybridizations

of radio waves and silver go-go boots

in any way affects

the erratic trajectories of UFOs;

Though, they now know

that the geometry of fireflies

may have some influence

over the delicate symbiosis

of communication satellites, train yards

and Blue Turtle migrations.

However, despite recent, controversial reports

there has been no

independent confirmation

on whether the random arrangement

of orange blossoms

on a city sidewalk, slick with rain,

has any more relation to the performance
of a North Korean featherweight in the 9^th

than a performance of Beethoven’s 9^th

(by the South Korean Philharmonic) does

to the discovery of designs

for a steam-driven engine

written on papyrus.

But, one doesn’t need

a steady diet of coral calcium deposits

or subterranean cold-storage

of arcane information

to see that a cracked engine block

is bound, cosmically,

to a crack-baby found

behind a dumpster in an alley

(alive and doing well we’re told),

that beauty-parlor patter is richly infused

with important information

regarding escape artistry,

living in the desert, the number “0” and
stealing household appliances (specifically,

toaster-ovens, it seems)

and, most importantly,

that a strangely warm winter-breeze

witnessed stirring a light bulb

hanging on the end of a string

will eventually result in a new idea

unfolding like a passionflower or

Chinese puzzle box of infinite digression

somewhere down the integer line

of an, as yet,

undetermined
causal chain.

-Jason Ryberg, 2004