The carriage door opened — A carriage rolled into a little sleepy town. It was barely light and nobody thought too much about the guilded footboards or the the crystal windowpanes which threw a dim glint into the gushing Aire under the bridge and lit up the wavelets like last…

A Bolshevik Alphabet — visualised B is for Bolshevik, who hunt the bourgeoisie O is for Okhrana, the Tsar’s secret police L is for Litovsk, the other part of Brest S is for Socialism, the Manifesto’s manifest H is for Harvest, and the grain we never had E is for Economy, Made in Petrograd V is for Vladimir, our great leader in-command I is for Iskra, the pamphlet contraband and if there isn’t one last thing which should come into mind —

Apparently, he was rational and inquisitive to the howling end. With heavy steps, the Lawyer imagined a crowd at the end of it all. Eyes down, tracing dark stains of blood trickle through dusty cracks where the wood was caked with soot and mud, red streamlets which trickled down the…

left forefinger jutting forward, suspended in condemnation from the crowds He couldn’t not take off the phrygian cap that hid his unwashed hair as he pulls back the jaws of the musket He couldn’t not exchange a blood-webbed stare then the screech of the cannonballs and the heat and the sudden appeal of cold cold corners and…

Her work-weariness, her darting eyes — Her eyes were intensely set to the screen before her. Irises that might have glistened like onyx under a warmer, softer light were made plastic and fearful by electronic blues and tedious shades of industrial white radiating from the carriage lights above us, and…

Only in solitude, does a single moment dilate to infinity. Taeka guarded this place after Denjiro’s death, her soul resides within these hallowed halls. Though her form endures no longer, her whispers are sung by the winds which sweep into this chamber; her gaze cast, like sunlight upon the maple…

Eyes gleaming as Ethiope emeralds, mouths agape but not savage. The Tozamurai bore animated figures of frolicking tigers. Rounded, warm-blooded, tense with a force suspended within golden walls. Eyes gleaming as Ethiope emeralds, mouthes agape but not savage. Illumined with light, gold upon gold radiating, penetrating and layering the ancient…

from the Jojakko-ji, Kyoto. The Bells of Tahoto Beam to beam entwined, Figments of eternity, Wind-swept, her bells chime. At the Altar of the Muse Shrine for a poet? Prayers etched in wind and wood, Abode of a god. Written under Tahoto tower and at Shigure-tei, in Jojakko-ji, Kyoto. 8 April 2023.