Field guide No. 609
Water flame, fire drips
Each doing the other's job.
Against black, a white candle burns with a flame of clear splashing water, while its drips run down the sides as small orange flames. Blowing it out would only make it wetter.
Field noteWater cannot burn, nor fire drip. This candle’s flame is splashing water and its drips are flame.
- Specimen
- No. 609
- Genus
- Generated
- Kind
- Impossible (the round square kind)
- Breaks
- Material
- Where it doesn’t exist
- A black studio.
- Nearest existing relative
- A church taper.
- Filed in Fresh slop as
- Objects
Also impossible, also breaking material
Pear pressed into white marbleA pear sinks into a marble counter without breaking its surface. The stone has gone soft around the fruit.
Silver fish through frosted branchesHoarfrost bristles on a bush that sits wholly underwater, where no frost can form, and fish weave through it.
Copper stitches mend the torn skySky has nothing to tear and nothing to sew into. Stitches in it mend a fabric that isn’t one.
Stratified mirage on a desert roadA mirage is a trick of hot air, with no body at all. These stand in panes on the verge and cast shine.