5 Variations on a Plot Curve
1. prime
| I was waiting to cross the street to get to the busstop on the other side and it looked like the traffic was just going to get worse when I missed a chance to dash in front of a Toyota licenseplate and the buslights were a little more than a minute away when I watched a rusted Volkswagen fender go by and the buslights were a minute away when a polished Mercedes hubcap rolled by and the buslights were less than a minute away when a smooth curve of a black Ferrari passed and overcome with crisis I ran across the street in front of a Toyota licenceplate and caught the bus. |
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2. inversion
| By now I had probably already missed the bus so I didn't dash across the street in front of the blaring Toyota horn to get to the busstop and listened wistfully to my right where there was indeed no hiss of pneumatics and as the scrape of a dragging Volkswagen muffler passed I realized I had certainly missed the bus to work and would be late (again) and I would be fired and as the thudding bass of a Mercedes woofer passed I realized that maybe getting fired wasn't so bad and then I realized that the boss wasn't herself getting to work for another hour and therefore couldn't fire me even if I caught the next bus and as the whisper of a Ferrari passed I suddenly heard the hiss of pneumatics I hadn't missed after all and overcome with suddenly rising crisis I ran in front of a Toyota's blaring horn across the street and caught the bus. |
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3. retrograde
| The warm seasick security of the bus was coming and so was the crushing metal impact of a Toyota so I jumped back onto the curb and felt the warm seasick security of the bus passed and with it I felt depart my job as I realized that even if the boss herself wouldn't be there for another hour I had just missed the last bus and as I felt the aerodynamics of a passing Ferrari brush by I wondered how long I could afford to eat dinner every night as my money dwindled to nothing and as I felt the pulsating bass of a passing Mercedes I decided it would be a fairly long time and even as a passing Volkswagen splattered my workshirt with cold puddlespray I didn't imagine that this would be much of a problem at all and I turned away from the crushing metal impact of a passing Toyota and walked home undercome with gradually descending crisis. |
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4. retrograde inversion
| I had just missed the busfumes and smelt their odor dissipate in a whiff of passing Toyota gasoline and I had come to the conclusion that I no longer had a job and this wasn't so bad and I was about to walk home when I decided to doublecheck the busschedule which I unfolded and discovered, much to the reversal of the descent of crisis, that there was indeed one more bus to catch which would arrive in a little more than a minute and as the new-car-interior smell of a Ferrari passed I sniffed for an opportunity to cross the street to catch the bus which would arrive in one minute as a Mercedes airfreshener passed the bus was less than a minute away so in a wake of noxious monoxide exhaust from a passing Volkswagen I ran in front of a whiff of Toyota gasoline across the street and caught the bus. |
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5. unscrewed 90 degrees
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To hell with my job anyway anyway I ran at this point I would still taste Toyota steel so I stood paralyzed in the middle of the lane and tasted briefly fear fear of suddenly rising crisis had kept me employed and enslaved there for too long and fear was only useful in response to a crisis not as a prevention against one one second and the next I tasted steel, glass and finally cement and blood as I waited for the antiseptics and cotton as I waited for the lights, the sirens, the hands touching me, a whiff of ether, nothing. nothing would happen to reverse the rapid descent of my crisis. I turned away from the salty Volkswagen and walked away from the sour Mercedes and was gone by the time that sweet Ferrari passed. |