The genius of the hole.
No matter how long you spend climbing out,
you can still fall back down in an instant.

The Vortex-Chimaerarum evisited

Listlessly as the shallop departing in the stagnant air of an April evening, I walk into the swirling currents of the vortex. The revisited frostiness encumbers my senses with a plethora of old, incoherent and chimerical memoirs. The sweet, metallic taste of rust. A deep scent of rotten newspaper. The omnipresent, distant and thunderous pounding noise. These are the peripheral layers, where sublimated substances from the vortex core crystalize into a ghastly mockery of florae.

[ tree #1 ]
Here, look.
Do you think this is really necessary?
Do not be so hard on yourself. Let go.
Just relax and forget about everything.
You can stay here forever.

[ tree #2 ]
You. Yes, you.
I need to tell you something.
It is a secret. No one knows.
I NEED to tell you something.
Do you want to know?

[ tree #3 ]
Have you not been here before?
Have you not always been here?
I remember. I remember you.
You are my brother.
Nice to see you.

[ tree #4 ]
Ah, the prodigal poet.
Will you play that music again?
I kinda miss those times,
When you played.
It made me weep
But it was alright.

[ tree #5 ]
I will never let you forget me.
For as long as you live,
– And, who knows, maybe longer –
I will stay here, scratching your heart.
I think I just want to hurt you.

[ tree #6 ]
You cannot tell anyone.
You cannot tell anyone.
I know you want to.
I know.
But you can't. You can't.
Look, please. Look! –
You need to stand very,
Veeery still.

[ tree #7 ]
Hello, Alex.
Everything is strange now,
But it will get better.
If you just hang in there,
Things will improve.
But then again, after all these years...
Will they?

A thunder breaks, the echoes making me dizzy and unquiet. The trees go on jabbering, but I close my ears to their ceaseless babble. I feel my heart knocking on the neighbouring lungs, ready to burst at any minute. I shift back for a while – This night only, I need to see someone. Thus I stray, and I dream. When I wake up the next day, I won´t be able to tell what is moving and what is static anymore. I will be overwhelmed by that deep vertigo, that excruciating sense of displacement. The chimeras will be taking their toll.