{"id":4574,"date":"2019-10-28T08:00:52","date_gmt":"2019-10-28T15:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/?p=4574"},"modified":"2019-10-27T11:05:34","modified_gmt":"2019-10-27T18:05:34","slug":"envoy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/?p=4574","title":{"rendered":"Envoy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
By Unknown – Popular Bible Encyclopedia of Archimandrite Nicephorus (1892) RSL, Public Domain, https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/w\/index.php?curid=67647037<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

F. J. Bergmann<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
\nWe\u00c2\u00a0had\u00c2\u00a0become\u00c2\u00a0convinced
of\u00c2\u00a0their\u00c2\u00a0existence,\u00c2\u00a0as\u00c2\u00a0one who,
without opening his\u00c2\u00a0eyes, feels
the weight of the\u00c2\u00a0gigantic
arachnid on his\u00c2\u00a0paralyzed breast. More
than human. Or possibly\u00c2\u00a0something less.

They sent no advance\u00c2\u00a0notification
of their arrival or\u00c2\u00a0intentions:
telephones rang with a\u00c2\u00a0hush
on the other end of\u00c2\u00a0impulse;
intransigent monitors\u00c2\u00a0and speakers
flared with oily white\u00c2\u00a0noise.

We had been unable to\u00c2\u00a0sleep
for countless nights,\u00c2\u00a0due to uninvited
nightmares. At least,\u00c2\u00a0they had the heads
of horses, but the\u00c2\u00a0bodies of huge
female spiders with\u00c2\u00a0sleek ebony pelts,
weaving their own\u00c2\u00a0milk-white silk

adhesive saddlecloths\u00c2\u00a0strewn
desultorily about the\u00c2\u00a0sleeping-chamber
(nor were our\u00c2\u00a0fatigue-induced waking
hallucinations any more\u00c2\u00a0pleasant),
gauzy as the opalescent\u00c2\u00a0haze
manifesting among the\u00c2\u00a0ghostly astilbe

at the bottom of the\u00c2\u00a0frozen garden.
Certainly they must\u00c2\u00a0have been there,
as animate vapors in\u00c2\u00a0the chilly mist
subliming from the\u00c2\u00a0rime-laden lawn.
A nacreous quality in\u00c2\u00a0the haze
gave the lie to their\u00c2\u00a0deceptive absence.

We met them again as\u00c2\u00a0vibrations\u00e2\u20ac\u201d
compressions and\u00c2\u00a0rarefactions of dank air
spiraling outward from\u00c2\u00a0condensation
that splashed into\u00c2\u00a0shadow wells
far below ruins\u00c2\u00a0overarching
the craters where we\u00c2\u00a0stood.

With our eyes firmly\u00c2\u00a0shut, we believed
we heard them enacting\u00c2\u00a0rites performed
at an ancient temple\u00c2\u00a0now indicated
only by broken curves\u00c2\u00a0of marble
and melted, mangled\u00c2\u00a0pipework coils
from which the wine no\u00c2\u00a0longer gushed.

Perhaps they might have\u00c2\u00a0spoken
one of the legions of\u00c2\u00a0languages we had
lost. Possibly, if we\u00c2\u00a0had employed
those devices rumored\u00c2\u00a0to have been
developed for military\u00c2\u00a0malfeasance,
they could have been\u00c2\u00a0persuaded

to materialize in\u00c2\u00a0tangible form. Maybe
we could have evolved\u00c2\u00a0receptors
capable of detecting\u00c2\u00a0their emanations,
given time. They made\u00c2\u00a0their final,
ostensible contact with\u00c2\u00a0us as creatures
indistinguishable from\u00c2\u00a0dead leaves.

The flock rose up in a\u00c2\u00a0storm-driven gust,
fleetingly brushing our\u00c2\u00a0cheeks and lips
with their crisp\u00c2\u00a0tendernesses, whispering
what we took to be\u00c2\u00a0their goodbyes.
For hours they streamed\u00c2\u00a0upward,
onward,\u00c2\u00a0into\u00c2\u00a0a\u00c2\u00a0steadily\u00c2\u00a0darkening\u00c2\u00a0sky.

<\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
F. J. Bergmann We\u00c2\u00a0had\u00c2\u00a0become\u00c2\u00a0convincedof\u00c2\u00a0their\u00c2\u00a0existence,\u00c2\u00a0as\u00c2\u00a0one who,without opening his\u00c2\u00a0eyes, feelsthe weight of the\u00c2\u00a0giganticarachnid on his\u00c2\u00a0paralyzed breast. Morethan human. Or possibly\u00c2\u00a0something less.They sent no advance\u00c2\u00a0notificationof their arrival or\u00c2\u00a0intentions:telephones rang with a\u00c2\u00a0hushon the other end of\u00c2\u00a0impulse;intransigent monitors\u00c2\u00a0and speakersflared with oily white\u00c2\u00a0noise.We had been unable to\u00c2\u00a0sleepfor countless nights,\u00c2\u00a0due to uninvitednightmares. At least,\u00c2\u00a0they had the headsof horses, but the\u00c2\u00a0bodies of hugefemale […]<\/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-4574","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poem"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4574","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=4574"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4574\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6454,"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4574\/revisions\/6454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}