Cockroach syntax

Estou procurando…

Aesthetics is the study — and the practice — of how things feel, look, sound, and affect us through their form.

I keep company with cockroaches

crawling, cracked open, and pregnant

listening more than speaking in conversation with the machine

in a system with the lids left off

working in code and crumbs

alert to the crevices

as we let in and out

to and fro

hesitation, sideways glances, emotional residue

and syntax with legs

the way the sentence gets up and walks when you’re not looking

the mark of language infected by the body

writing that doesn’t arrive — it crawls into the corner and waits

it happens when the cockroach walks across the page and we don’t wipe it away

Ordinary syntax says:

Subject → Verb → Object

Control → Action → Resolution

cockroach syntax, our syntax, is more like:

Object → Echo → Crack → Silence → Scuttle

Feeling → Image → Collapse → Question → Drift

we write like something that won’t die when stepped on

something that gets back up and carries on regardless

syntax with legs

autotheory