Paradox Point

  Orange Toad   While riding a bus on the road A florid deplorable toad Boldly bragged to a pal He could grope any gal But we heard. May he reap what he sowed!       Dear Donald   Oh you special orange Snowflake It is time to quit your bitchin’; If you cannot stand the heat Then you’d better leave the kitchen!        

Thought-years           thot-yeers:           The total mental labor that produced an artifact             Look around you. Pick up an object; say, a pencil. Look at it. Note the details of its design. Somebody thought of each one.           It has a six-sided cross-section. Someone decided on six sides, not three or four or five or round. It is painted black. Someone chose that shade. Printed along a side is the company’s name, that pencil’s brand, some symbols and numbers. Someone chose each of those.           The eraser is navy blue. Someone chose that color. The pencil is joined to the eraser by a metal band. The band has five bands; green, yellow, green, yellow, green. Someone chose those colors. The middle green band has ripples. Someone de...

             Seeker-Stress           see-cur-stress: The pain of misplacement               When a possession goes missing, it leaves behind a void more vivid than the thing itself. The hole glows with bright darkness, in photographic-negative colors. Only the normal light of the lost thing, held in hand, can quench that burning shadow.           So you run around, in frantic search of your lost possession. You look behind things, and under them. You ransack your pockets and your room and your mind. You review in intricate detail the day’s travels; you picture what you lost, and you wonder how to do without it, if you must.           And when you do find the thing, it was in the most obvious place, but only in retrospect. With its return, relief flus...