One most ferocious robber in the pond

World, observes a zoologist, is a slim,

Streamlined insect called the Dytiscus larvae:

Lying in ambush on a water grass

He suddenly shoots at lightning speed

To his prey (or anything moving or smelling

Of ‘animal’ in any way, a fat tadpole, for

Instance), darts underneath it, then quickly

Jerks up his head, grabs it in his jaws

Injects his poisonous glandular secretion into it

Dissolves its entire inside into a liquid soup

And sucks as it swells up first, and then gradually

Shrinks to a limp bundle of skin until it finally falls

From his fatal kiss. Very few animals

 

According to the observer

Even when starved to death would attack

Let alone eat an equal-sized animal

Of their own species

 

But the Dytiscus does, just as man does

Within or without a pond

 

 

 

 

i.

 

Colouris combustis, an inexplicability, is a deeply mysterious and fascinating creature. Like most inexplicabilities, its life cycle comprises four stages of quantum existence: the [ ], < >, ( ), { }. At the [ ] stage, it exists merely as a translucent secretion in the emptiness of space-time. After a multiplicity of infinities, the colouris combustis gains edges of spectral colour that undulate to their own obscure rhythm. At this stage, the colours dance only at the edges and will make no further progression.

 

ii.

 

Moving on to its next stage, the colouris combustis gains momentum and pulsates with a wild energy best described as being similar to that of the rapid-firing of overly-stimulated neurons. Now, the colouris combustis begins to emit a strong static stench, filling the abstractions around it with a sense of uneasiness. The static slime surrounding the inexplicability buzzes and hums, awaiting dispersion into nothingness as the spectral colours build within it.

 

iii.

 

We now move on to the colouris combustis’ imago-esque stage, where it is neither here nor there, everywhere and nowhere, within and without existence. Despite its state of ontological uncertainty, the quantum miasma of colours continues to consume and grow. The static slime begins to melt away, as the colours within move from undulation to pulsation to violent combustion.

 

iv.

 

While inexplicably and inconceivably beautiful, the colouris combustis is comparatively short-lived. The death of this inexplicability is marked by a gradual dispersion of colour, and a return to the perfect stillness of the quantum void.

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