Field guide No. 298
Butterfly shadows over a sleeping tiger
Something is fluttering, somewhere.
A tiger sleeps on a squash-court floor while a swarm of butterfly shadows crosses the wall. There are no butterflies in the room.
Field noteCast by butterflies that aren’t in the room: a silhouette of nothing, which is a contradiction with wings.
- Specimen
- No. 298
- Genus
- Generated
- Kind
- Impossible (the round square kind)
- Breaks
- Physics
- Where it doesn’t exist
- A squash court, late afternoon.
- Nearest existing relative
- A shadow puppet.
- Filed in Fresh slop as
- Spaces
Also impossible, also breaking physics
Flames within the icebergA fire inside ice that doesn’t melt it is both hot and not hot at the same place.
Sky beneath the cracked earthThe sky is above the ground by definition. Below it, it is not the sky.
Winter drawBehind a slab in a red canyon there should be more canyon. Through the door there is snow instead.
The shadow arrives firstA shadow is the shape of its object by definition. This one has other plans, and so cannot be one.