The atman adrift in space sees stars’ results: novae; a black, swirling eon of brilliance condensed under such pressure the center produces heat that glows out the incandescent surface sphere. Conditions ripen. Moisture warms. A chemical reaction takes place. Shoals sprout terrestrial life. In this one-hundred-and-twenty-five- billion-year window of opportunity how far are we from [...]
Author Archives: Arturo Leon
The Static Aesthetic
The model holds poses for stretches, nude; a part of her hidden from view. Busy artists’ gazes bounce from body to the paper upon which lines mark changes that endure once she moves, reclines in another position, stands, and puts her oriental robe back on. While hands are drawing, the subject resolves in as many [...]
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Artistic Inspiration
“That murder of the family of four in Kansas,” Andy Warhol apropos of nothing muses to Truman Capote. “This killer Perry you know?” “No. I haven’t read the paper recently.” “Fascinating psyche. You should write a book about him,” the artist suggests to the writer. “Okay, righty-roo, will do.” Warhol plays off that comment: “Roo [...]
School Shooting
Goth rock was a major influence on the Trenchcoat Mafia. Satan is in our midsts. The devil is stalking in painted demented clown face, purple dye, and black nail polish, the preacher proclaimed in the aftermath of the shootings to the reeling community in church on Sunday in Colorado. The apocalypse is nigh. Let us [...]
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Bacchus Complex
Cassandra chews the laurel leaf. She is a Native American shaman at a pyramid in Mexico. She stands atop the Temple of the Sun, offering herself in sacrifice. I foresee rape and plague. The Aryans are coming. They want to take over the Earth. Enslave us to serve their Great White [shark] Society. Spice! Recollections [...]
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Dog Shit Society
What makes rebels rebel and turns to the apostate the formerly pious believer? Fecal matter in the street. Brown smears stain the grey sidewalk. Sniff. -Hey you smell that? It stinks here. -Hm maybe that is because we’re standing on a sewer. That isn’t dog, it is human shit you stepped on. “But who could [...]
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Hairless Waters
Pink Floyd performs at Pompeii to an audience of none. They sing Echoes in the amphitheatre of the ancient Roman city drowned in volcanic ash and lost to history for one thousand and five hundred years. The concert is in 1970. Beside the band only the cameramen are present to record the spectacle. A Saucerful [...]
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Elegy for Buggy
Sentient beings are said to seek happiness and harmony. How then do humans come to be so low and self-reviling? Cicadas flipped on their fat backs, unable to buzz wings against the cement floor. Disproportionately tiny insect legs scramble upside-down footprints on the liminal air. These ants, according to the doctrine of reincarnation, are our [...]
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Orisons of Ophelia
Vile wretch that I am, I identify with Shakespeare’s Hamlet, especially his famous soliloquy: To be or not to be. It is more than a question. It is a choice. Yet how can it be if I am so fatally compelled to the latter? Starvation, isolate sexless insanity… I admit I am hungry and desperately [...]
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Phidippides Sprints
The hero mounts the treadmill. Looks at the woman to his right. She is wearing a pink tank top. Is attractive and has big breasts. He smiles at her. His white teeth glint. Ting, the soundtrack sparkles as in a toothpaste commercial for Ultrawhitening. The music pumps: Death Metal. The news blares on ten different [...]
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