The influence of gaslight or electric light on the growth of paraheliotropic trees

** squawk ** ** bleep ** “We stand upon the edge of a great precipice…” ** a black and white television clicks on ** “We  stand upon the edge …” ** squawk ** the channel changes ** “We stand upon the edge of a great precipice” ** squawk bleep beep ** I sit in front of it ** time-lapse ** I was not in this room, I was in some other room ** smaller ** a different city ** higher ceilings ** “We stand upon the edge of a” ** I sit in a Starbucks window and watch people walk by ** It is a great city, New York, no matter what ** “We stand … ” *** I was elsewhere, once ** elsewhere again ** This moment ** ” … the edge” ** In the time lapse my beard appears and grows and recedes like the beaches of New Jersey ** squawk ** It is an old man, speaking ** He is the President of the United States ** It is a young man speaking. He is the President of the United States. ** It is a black man speaking. He is the President of the United States. ** I am a child, ten years old, November, I go down and turn on the television ** there is going to be a new President, it says ** “We stand upon the edge of a great precipice … ” *** I am three years old. My mother calls me and says “Josh, come watch the space shuttle take-off” *** squawk bleep squawk *** bombs go off in a jungle. I have not yet been born. *** the infinite past collapses *** squawk *** the infinite future collapses *** this moment is now *** no, this moment is now *** no, this moment is now *** I am the Salem Witch Museum, and Giles Corey is asking for more weight — my father says, “No, he was actually saying ‘Wait –” *** squawk *** It is two weeks ago — I am laying in my tent, high of cannabis butter, looking through the mesh at the bright country stars *** squawk *** I have not yet been born. It is a hundred thousand years ago. The land is silent. Naked men look up at the pinprick lights in the sky and wonder *** The Space Shuttle rises *** I am in a room — it is several years ago — I play a video of a speech — a man is saying that we are not Red States or Blue States *** right now, the real now (30 seconds ago) my ex calls. We fight about science & Larry Summers *** “We stand upon the edge of a great precipice” **  A television plays ** swim **