Issue 2.2 Spring 2007

cover image

 

Artist Statement

Adam Wykes is a writer from Rockford IL. His writing focuses primarily on science-fiction, his poetry on the metaphysical. He would just like to say that he is a big fan of Emily Novak, Civ III, shrews, wikipedia, all things Welsh, emergence, and William Gibson.

A Litany of Human Prowess

Adam Wykes

 

Silence is with me

like a shadow

I disappear within its fold

and I am not calamity in any part

but rather peace

the true peace that is

when violence is accepted

the deadly peace

Death is with me

as is life

the balance

the scale

that can encompass all things

and weigh them

and pass judgment

Fear is not with me

It does not travel

In my circle of comrades

Together we are in no need

Of instinct

So too this is not bravery

But calm action

The owl is with me

The tiger in the grass is with me

The cobra snake coils round my ankles

The terrifying abilities of nature

Explode in profusion about me

I am become adaptation, the effect

of all causes

Like water I pour

Into my environment

Filling the space

given me

But when I freeze over

Even the greatest rocks split open

And I am become their master

Infinity is in my blood

Quickness in my cells

And something has wrought within my eyes

A hot machinery

Which beholds the world

Calculates it

and moves with purpose

in the shade of the trees

toward advantage over my foes.

 

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