Palimpsest

24 fps

My senses lag behind the times.

It may be the curse of age or

The effects of my foibles, follies and/or failings.

The jury is still out.

As the high-pitched whine of day-to-day

Descends from compression-blue

To attenuated-red

I can see the cine frames unwinding.

They become foreshortened on the screen,

Pressed together to trick my eyes into believing

That time’s passage is a river,

Steady, smooth, inexorable.

Those behind are attenuated red

Stretched into oblivion.

But in that moment before all fades,

I note the separate frames

Flickering by as they slow.

All this while, I have been deluded,

Believing that time flowed like a river.

But I see them all quite clearly now;

The cine frames,

Each segment sharp and distinct,

An image caught in a strobe of brilliance

As their progress slows,

Reflecting moments from the past

Before they die.

I want to describe them all,

Each frame unrolling from the reel,

Freeze this moment or that moment

And reveal it in detail.

I want to snatch a piece of reality,

Not much,

Just a single frame out of many,

As it flies by and give it

A brief illusion of immortality

Before it dies.

But there are too many

And there is too little time.

So I will illuminate the few that I have

As well as I am able.

I will shine a light in the shadows and

I will write about what I see.

When I am satisfied with my work

I will share it with you.

I have come to the realization that

Life is just a series of frames

Speeding by at 24 fps.

Click here to return to Home Page