in verse:
               nothing lasts for long -- all passages are indelible
               ------------------------------------------------------------

               everything is recorded -- like flowers in timelapse
               everything leaves a trail in spacetime
               a lighted match waved

               to understand
               at all any small bit of anything
               any chunked bit of bits
               anything yes anything at all
               one could look at it like so

               this here is a path
               of an animal passing
               some time ago
               and this broken twig means this and that
               and this scat is his or what
               and that bit of scent was only hers or maybe not

               everything is hiking

               from writing poems
               do designing dashboards
               to fighting

               and the mathematics of tomorrow simply said
               will be: ever getting smarter about running things back
               running passages inside out
               t-shirts dresses outcomes

               must hurry
               because nothing lasts for long
               and though all passages are indelible
               an inverse is locally computable
               only if the question asked is an easy question:

               what just happened
               what happened not long ago

               every thing is a dying tremor of
               a smudge a grudge a social condition
               of some song
               every rain is a new rain
               but even so
               things get irretrievable

               every liquid snapshot is a slice of flow
               every slomo is a supple glide of a wedding train
               first name maiden name

               every path i see
               every (street i) do not enter
               every (i see it) one way only

               is a sign a story a logic how tragic
               that the universe and its math are alive
               even stones hurt
               if one knew how to feel it

               the idea of randomness
               the idea of inert things
               the concept of innocent bystander

               join phlogiston
               aisle 12: seasonal merchandise/plastic toys


                       Marek Lugowski
                       19 June 1998
                       Chicago, Illinois