This drawing is created for an international collaborative project, Return Flight.The project commissions artists in one city to create new artwork, then writers in the opposite location to respond with a blind creative writing piece. Blind meaning that the writers do not receive the name of the artist or any context about the work. They are encouraged to trust their own reading of the work.

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Poetry by Eleanor Jackson 

Memory, Desire, Signs

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Who knows what Kublai Khan and Marco Polo would think

of this invisible city? No lagoon of crabs to bite the eyes

of suicides, no sixty silver domes, only this unfurling

monochrome labyrinth. I wish I knew the euphoric name

 

of this invisible city. No lagoon of crabs to bite the eyes,

just lozenged bodies, cubist cars, the sensory architecture of the

monochrome labyrinth. I wish I knew a euphoric name

to call my friend across the park, remind them of this game played

 

by lozenged bodies, cubist cars. The sensory architecture of

the body bicycling against soft wind, a ball in play, forgetting

to call my friend across the park, to remind them of this game played

remembering strange cities. The aurora of the patterned street

 

is a body bicycling against soft wind, a ball in play, forgetting

suicides, the sixty silver domes. Only this unfurling

memory of strange cities where the aurora of the patterned street

knows what Kublai Khan and Marco Polo would think.