Shawn Huelle

witchery number six

Usually: once at quarter-past; twice at half-past; thrice at quarter-till; four times at the whole to announce, and then, in a different tone, as many times are as necessary, but no more than twelve. Now: a vague, whenever sort of clanking and tinkling. Regardless, something is being measured. All I have to do is find the pattern. Find the pattern. All I have to do. All. I started thinking about science, and I didn't feel quite as heavy, but science seems to have failed me here. There's something I can't see around. Something I can't see to see around. Despite my ignorance, I have attempted to reproduce the table of the elements by scratching in the gravel of my bed; I have attempted to enumerate the metals.

A is for Actinium, Aluminum, and Americium. L is for Lanthanum, Lawrencium, Lead, Lithium, and Lutetium. C is for Cadmium, Calcium, Californium, Cerium, Cesium, Chromium, Cobalt, Copper, and Curium. H is for Hafnium, Hassium, and Holmium. E is for Einsteinium, Erbium, and Europium. M is for Magnesium, Manganese, Meitnerium, Mendelevium, Mercury, and Molybdenum. Y is for Ytterbium and Yttrium. But what then of Barium, Berkelium, Beryllium, Bismuth, Bohrium, Darmstadtium, Dubnium, Dysprosium, Fermium, Francium, Gadolinium, Gallium, Gold, Indium, Iridium, Iron, Neodymium, Neptunium, Nickel, Niobium, Nobelium, Osmium, Palladium, Platinum, Plutonium, Potassium, Praseodymium, Promethium, Protactinium, Radium, Rhenium, Rhodium, Roentgenium, Rubidium, Ruthenium, Rutherfordium, Samarium, Scandium, Seaborgium, Silver, Sodium, Strontium, Tantalum, Technetium, Terbium, Thallium, Thorium, Thulium, Tin, Titanium, Tungsten, Uranium, Vanadium, Zinc, and Zirconium?

The bird just looks at me and doesn't blink. I attempt to measure something by moving. I clink and clank feebly. Perhaps if I could count the gravel. Perhaps each sound divided by the gravel will give me . . . Perhaps each gravel divided by sound . . . Perhaps all the gravel . . . none of the sound. I see myself in the stable. I see myself as stable. I see myself as heavy. I'm beginning to understand the metals. The bird looks away.

Again: When will where and this meet?