absentmindedly ask a student
about the aesthetic qualities of a waveform
she's more a fan of the sine wave
"a classicist! I see how it is"
she returns later to turn in an assignment
carrying as well a drawing from the student art lottery
inscribed in stilted block letters with
"could we not admire their strange colors?"
(or something to that effect)
the drawing is all gray
an upside down dark gray ufo floating / falling
in billowing sheets of light gray solid wind
but the words bring it color.
later, tired
at a fossil fuel divestment meeting
get caught up in the idea
of embodied artifacts of futures successful / unsuccesful
in dealing with global warming
like: a plaque in front of dead grass
describing the (quite real) plant that dies
in the presence of landmines
unsettling, or at least curious;
or, a series of plaques
for a tour of an underwater MIT
describing particularly picturesque invasive species
for touring divers
or, a stack of pamphlets
celebrating the 50th reunion of the class of 2011
with maps showing a flooded MIT
and a tour of Killian Pond at 1pm Monday
(bring anti-malarials, and
watch out for alligators)
in each of our micro cultures, hypocritical
and all of our (macro) culture, inertial
speculative futures may be gray
but maybe words can bring us color.