Fruitfly Geographic, livre ebook

FRUITFLY GEOGRAPHIC STEPHEN BROCKWELL P UBLICATION D ATA P AGE FRUITFLY GEOGRAPHIC ... electronic man is no less a nomad than his Palaeolithic ancestors. -Marshall McLuhan CONTENTS DART TRIP REPORTS MONTREAL HANDS OF THE FATHER PENANG BLUE BONNETS ABSENCE OF THE BOBOLINK MOUNTAIN PRAYER ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS DART I ve spent half my life learning to play darts in the dark. To find the sharp point without bleeding was the first lesson. To measure distances by the dart s thud in the wood paneling downstairs or by the skitter of feathers on the linoleum floor was the second. If I could see the target I d toss three triple twenties with such ease the tournaments of England would invite me. But I confess-and this darkness has been a long forestalling of confession- there never was a target I could see but a tree of targets for a single dart. Or was the target a Baffin Island hut abandoned, say, two hundred years ago? TRIP REPORTS MONTREAL The taxi driver smokes. Minus 30. His bare hand carries my bags. HANDS OF THE FATHER One hundred thousand hours of paper, printer s ink and penciled estimates have shaped his hands, fingers sturdy as walking sticks. On weekends they became instruments for tying knots he could not name: a clove-hitch supported the fences when pasture thinned and cattle stretched the page wire; a bowline steadied the TV antenna in gusts that crossed the field; twin cat s paws pulled his car doors together.