{"id":1352,"date":"2017-03-13T08:05:20","date_gmt":"2017-03-13T15:05:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/?p=1352"},"modified":"2017-03-05T13:30:24","modified_gmt":"2017-03-05T20:30:24","slug":"toward-zero-by-f-j-bergmann","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/?p=1352","title":{"rendered":"Toward Zero, by F.J. Bergmann"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-1355\" src=\"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/467px-Leonardo_da_Vinci_-_Study_of_Two_Warriors_Heads_for_the_Battle_of_Anghiari_-_Google_Art_Project-292x300.jpg\" alt=\"467px-Leonardo_da_Vinci_-_Study_of_Two_Warriors'_Heads_for_the_Battle_of_Anghiari_-_Google_Art_Project\" width=\"292\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/467px-Leonardo_da_Vinci_-_Study_of_Two_Warriors_Heads_for_the_Battle_of_Anghiari_-_Google_Art_Project-292x300.jpg 292w, http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/467px-Leonardo_da_Vinci_-_Study_of_Two_Warriors_Heads_for_the_Battle_of_Anghiari_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg 467w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 292px) 100vw, 292px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>I am someone whom they wish to destroy.<br \/>\nI sleep on my spaceship. At night, plaintive<br \/>\ncries keep me awake, won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t let me finish<br \/>\nmy book of revelations. Claire, do wash<br \/>\ncarefully: restrooms conceal a virus.<br \/>\nThe radio messages are unclear.<\/p>\n<p>I had a high security clearance;<br \/>\nthis all began with a blocked artery.<br \/>\nIn surgery, a thought-sensing device\u00e2\u20ac\u201d<br \/>\nhow, I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know\u00e2\u20ac\u201dthey managed to implant,<br \/>\nwith a camera, too. Now, Claire, they watch<br \/>\neach infra-red pulse. This plot\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s infinite.<\/p>\n<p>Pretend you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t see them, or they vanish.<br \/>\nAliens attacked me\u00e2\u20ac\u201dwith nuclear<br \/>\ncapabilities, Claire! They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll never catch<br \/>\nme; the safety\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s off. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll take this story<br \/>\npublic: call Washington; file a complaint.<br \/>\nCitizenship entitles to service,<\/p>\n<p>not government surveillance vis-\u00c3\u00a0-vis<br \/>\nTV, betrayed by scratches in varnish<br \/>\nBut those thugs won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t find me compliant:<br \/>\nI\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll hole up on the moon\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s dark side, declare<br \/>\nI\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m bankrupt, up a famed estuary.<br \/>\nClaire, don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t reveal my source of tainted cash.<\/p>\n<p>Others\u00e2\u20ac\u201dClaire, I know we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not alone\u00e2\u20ac\u201dcheck<br \/>\nfor signs in heaven, listen for voices.<br \/>\nI\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll show them the conclusive site of Troy.<br \/>\nMy manuscript, although it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s unfinished,<br \/>\nproves all. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m editing for clarity.<br \/>\nTime is spun by a sundial on a plinth.<\/p>\n<p>They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve traced us to another planet,<br \/>\na duplicate of ours, Claire\u00e2\u20ac\u201dwith a catch:<br \/>\neverything they don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know about you, Claire<br \/>\n(illegitimate daughter of the Vice-<br \/>\nPresident, with a sweet affinity<br \/>\nfor violence); your altered history.<\/p>\n<p>Claire, don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t self-destruct. She who is Not-Claire, doppelg\u00c3\u00a4nger, plant,<br \/>\nkills slowly\u00e2\u20ac\u201da fine art. Try, Claire, to safeguard our secret cache<br \/>\nof toxic jewels. Are you there, Claire? Me again. Please advise.<\/p>\n<h6><i>Study of Two Warriors\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Heads for The Battle of Anghiari<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0(<abbr title=\"circa\">c.<\/abbr>\u00e2\u20ac\u20301504\u00e2\u20ac\u201c5), by Leonardo da Vinci. Black chalk or charcoal, some traces of red chalk on paper, 19.1 \u00c3\u2014 18.8 cm.\u00c2\u00a0<a title=\"Museum of Fine Arts (Budapest)\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Museum_of_Fine_Arts_(Budapest)\">Museum of Fine Arts<\/a>, Budapest<\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I am someone whom they wish to destroy. I sleep on my spaceship. At night, plaintive cries keep me awake, won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t let me finish my book of revelations. Claire, do wash carefully: restrooms conceal a virus. The radio messages are unclear. I had a high security clearance; this all began with a blocked artery. In [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poem"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1352"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1352\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1360,"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1352\/revisions\/1360"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}