– Robert – 7/8/97
Dear Email Friend (whose Voice and Face I nearly forget),
When I write electronically to you I always Stretch my wordscape by morphing old words Revitalising yesterday’s soup for today’s silicon brew.
Even through the lesser eye span of VDU concentration My brain peers out some 360 degrees To find vivid cross sections of my world.
Each day this week the Russian Space Station thrashed on, Amidst the derision of dollar-minded Senators Wanting their lad home, the data-minded Scientists Wanting their experiment done, the trade-minded Sometime desperate Russian command wanting reputation salvage, The steel deal spun and flickered suspended high in media gaze.
‘Only human error’ and ‘only hardware failure’ and ‘only failure to anticipate’;
In the realm of incident these ‘only’s sometimes constellate To the same day and make extremes of misfortune spectacular and tragic. In other junctures ‘only’s come in cat and mouse sequence, Providence chooses to sustain human suspense.
My week my friend – A suspenseful week. Though not so high as cosmo and astro ‘nauts, They are the canvas for me of the journey of late.
Computing machines in my care going up and down, Attention riveted by incoming and outgoing economic units, Hasty successions of demanding events, winter and its people. A walk outside to audit a previous venture.
I have been making time where it did not previously exist I have been drafting reports to directors And piloting where the footprint of corporate greed intrudes.
I have not been working a wrench weightless whilst EVA I have not been floating around globules of formaldehyde Nor piloting where no way is up.
So my passage has been comparatively safe.
Robert