TRR
This is my first posting here. I am not an interstellar traveler like most of you. My line of work is construction. I am happy to be where I am having a job and many friends, supervisors like myself. Usually we talk sports. Last time though the topic was TRR – imagine that! I found the subject of that conversation worth of sharing with a new crowd so I put together a few sentences. Now you have a chance to cast a glance at them.
The father of contemporary art, Amadeus Amateur, was a beach sculptor. He created stunning images on an ocean beach using sand as material and a rake as the tool. He had a few hours a day to complete the thing and photograph it before a tide would come and erase it. His followers went further by not taking photographs, while Amateur’s were lost or maybe destroyed by zealots. As result all we have for contemporary art today is empty beaches.
Collections of ancient art, however, still reside in museums, most of which are closed – just like libraries. Working hard three hours a day two days a week we barely have time for tweeting – forget about paintings and books! We do love sports. Watching games constitutes the ultimate delight available to humans. There is wide-spread belief among us that Afterlife is nothing else but endless and uninterrupted games watching.
That is, of course, a simplification. According to the orthodox doctrine Afterlife happens to people when they cease supervising, which, as you know, takes place at the age of ninety. It is the state of permanent bliss. We have the proof of it: nobody has ever returned to continue working! Afterlife is available to all, but what kind of bliss an individual gets depends on his or her Social Security Score. Fair enough, I think.
The doctrine is vague on the subject of differences between Afterlife and Beforelife. These two aren’t the same, that’s for sure. While nobody comes back from Afterlife, everybody comes out of Beforelife, eager to escape it by all means. Still they have something in common; we’re just unable to figure out what it could be. Shouldn’t even try. As one of the wisest Supervisors famously said: What difference does it make today?
I’m almost done with the posting. In a moment a tide will come and erase it leaving the page blank. Tabula Rasa Rules! This is the motto of our civilization, and, in a deeper sense, the motto of the Universe. Look at the sky with many constellations pinned to it. Such a beautiful view! But a gigantic tide will rise and sweep the place clean – no stars, no nebulas. Isn’t that inspiring? I think it is. Let’s not be afraid. Let’s go with the tide!
TRR! TRR! TRR!
Boris Kokotov was born in Moscow, Russia. Currently he lives in Baltimore. He writes poems and short stories. He also translated selected poems of German Romantics and contemporary American poets to Russian language. His work appeared in periodicals, most recently in Allegro, The Bewildering Stories, Boston Poetry Magazine, Constellations, Chiron Review, and The Lake.
