Topic

Other Minds

Observations from the edge of consciousness – human, animal, artificial, or otherwise occupied. These entries wonder what can be known, what should remain opaque, and how ethics looks when we stop assuming likeness. They prefer curiosity to certainty, and humility to empathy that flatters itself.

Unphotographable Porto

She’s up early. Breath like stone dust. The streets are wet, always – from rain, from hosepipes, from the river breathing uphill. A crane grinds, coughs steel into the mist. Laundry strung like rosaries, a dog beneath blue tiles, a grandmother climbing cobbles with her shopping. Tiles crack. Paint flakes.

Orcas, Tuesday.

The orcas have formed a committee. The port authority says it's temporary. The whales disagree. They've established a perimeter, clockwise, with the efficiency of customs officials who've grown fond of their new regulations. Tuesday: they capsized the German yacht. Friday: reviewed the Swedes. Saturday:

Fugue for an Old Hunter in Scent Major

– Bach, for two noses, one constant presence. I. Doof: Opening Nose low. Step silent. The scent begins shallow – he slows. Left paw tests a patch of dry. There was a bird, not long. He turns before the wind does. Ribs tighten around the breath that hasn’t changed. Something worth

#24. Canine Anomalies, Filed.

The paperwork never matches. The names are always “wrong.” At the park, someone calls out: Rex? And I think, What a heavy thing to name a dog. Doof once ignored a priest. Sig grabbed a philosopher’s sleeve. They say I bit a nun at school. We’re not misbehaved.

Ghibli’s Patience

She rolls her eyes with a restless breath, warm, wide, sails stretched taut, fierce and bemused, half-playful, half-tolerant of the creature she bears, indulgent as she glides. Her nimble hull hums and skips the waves, tuned to storms and shifting skies, to clouds with mischief in their bones – they thrill