First Course In Turbulence

Bird Sanctuary

Bird Sanctuary For a while we didn’t know what to call it but we were all after it so we had to call it something. Seen Vladimir? we started asking in metal shop. Vladimir, we’d say, watching the first snow. Was it longing for something in our childhood or was it the sense of the world made new and ready for our ruin? If you were Achilles, it was either sulking in your tent or struggling with a strange river. Vladimir, it turns out, is entirely in the mind. Well, maybe. A guy I used to shoplift with once made a model of the Eiffel Tower out of sugar cubes but halfway through he realized toothpicks would have been a more expressive medium. The Vladimir was gone but when he finished and got his B+ anyway, we put it out in the rain and the Vladimir returned as it dissolved. Wabi some Japanese poet called it, wondering why Americans paint their barns when it takes years of exposure to get them to look so full of wabi. At first there was an actual Vladimir on space station Mir watching ants trying to behave in zero gravity but when his nose clogged up, Igor replaced him. Imagine sneezing inside a space helmet. Theoretical scientists spend a lot of time colliding things, trying to locate Vladimir until half decide Vladimir doesn’t exist 16 so there’s a big feud about funding. During the past, Vladimir was called phlogiston and everyone and thing had it, especially if you burst into silver flames. Imagine being a tree made into a thousand matchsticks. Once on a ferry going to Larkspur, we stood in the spray watching fog paw through the city. Even now, we love each other. 17 ...