Ityl-Atys, Aqaraza, IOTA

by free agent .rez

January 1994

Ityl-Atys
the City
was an orphan
 
Father Sun, Mother Moon
 
the strike came early
swamping and rushing the slow work
of the Khazars under the city ground
 
it was staved off by merest of chance
as luck would have it
 
the City destroyed
the Garden replaced its structures
with green and blue
vines choked the stones
used to pave the streets
used to raise the roofs
 
pinnacles of pimice
black imposing stone
riddled with spaces
arose to take the place
vacated by cruder architectures
 
in the Center of the City
at the point where the Absent River splits into two
        or where the two merge into one
        it matters not
there had been a Tower housing a force
directly under the Tower had been the catacombs
closest to the surface in their gnowledge of its currents
 
when the City was shaken into bits
and replaced mote by mote
the Tower too was destroyed and replaced
by a single
vast
Tree
 
the Bazaar flowed with blood of merchants
the delicate devices of the Albino Craftors drifted
like sandalwood in the current
in the current
down-flow
 
and the ground was brown and red and black
and the holes in the black rock-earth stasis
each held a mote
a seed
one iota
 
the one under the Tower formed a Tree
and the countless legions surrounding it formed grasses
and ferns
and vines which crept over all surfaces and through all crevices
 
above the Light remained the same:
 
a perpetual dusk
Sun eclipsed by Moon
 
the Garden-City remained in shadow
 
the Arcology
 
far far below
the 'ajikhazi thought
and pondered the use of delving further down below
towards the rumbling which was beginning to swell
while up above their Khazar family began the task
of renewing the land
and allowing the re-birth of the older lays
 
and below
the 'ajikhazi approaches the presence
 
it had been heard in newer lays
and whispered winds
that there came a Point in the catacombs below
at which one 'ajikhazi could no longer tell
brother or sister from Other
 
and there were Others
 
and there WERE Others
 
and the Others sought to guide
the lone 'ajikha
to a lower damper hotter darker place
a place of overwhelming Presence
 
one was rent
the urge to stay above
the need to go below
if only to keep his family
from precarious mistakes
 
Aqaraza
white-black Khazar
 
Aqaraza was by adoption Khazar
further,
Aqaraza was by compulsion 'ajikhazi
 
Aqaraza sat below the Tree
 
Mount 'eya glowered above
the sea and its tides slid in a loose tension
 
the Garden rippled its response
but Aqaraza had lost innocent ears long before
 
Aqaraza wandered above
parts of his Lexa as companion
 
he wandered through the edges of the ruined city
he noticed the vines tighgten their grip
on crumbling artiface as he passed
lest he wrest the wretched wall from a collective grasp
 
the edges of the City no longer made sense
 
the desert had faded into the City's toes
wriggling
filling with new intentions
the Wet Forest had merged into the desert itself
 
growth quickened
with every new step taken away from the Tree
away from the split river of green and waving silence
 
as edges approached the terrain would no longer sit still
 
Aqaraza realized with half wonder
down below or out on land it is all the same
slowly all sense of reference fades
and is absorbed into the flus
only the Tree is fixed
and even it moves by and by
 
Aqaraza realized that humans
        Khazar or otherwise
shared a blessing or curse
in that they had no roots
and thus no reference points but the most relatvie and tenuous
 
IOTA
grew of this gnowledge
and Aqaraza found its seedling pages in a wooden flask
the book had been waiting to form
waiting to speak
 
Aqaraza had been waiting to turn listening
into a form of silent writing
 
he returned to the Tree and sat below
and found IOTA forming in his very hands
 
around him the minstrels and bards varied the Lays of Ateh
and they ebbed and flowed in sound
approaching like a feral beast
the written forms of those same lays
which IOTA had integrated
simply by referring to them within itself