POETIC UTILITY

SEATTLE PUBLIC UTILITIES ARTS MASTER PLAN

Commissioned by the Seattle Arts Commission Submitted to:

Seattle Public Utilities for Preliminary Review

Submitted by:

Buster Simpson, Artist in Residence Seattle Public Utility

April 1998

Conductor: Concert of Factory Sirens and Steam Whistles Baku, Russia, 1922

Seattle Public Utility Draft Arts Plan

Poetic Utility Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION Page 1

An Opportunity for Poetic Utility from Longhouse to Bauhaus to SPU I. CONFLUENCES - THE COMING TOGETHER OF ARTIST AND SPU Page 2-3 A. Navigational Boot Camp B. Charette du Reality C. Artist on Retainer D. Requests for Qualifications E. Peer Review II. EVENTS OF UTILITY Page 4-5 A. Utility Parade Intervention B. Utility Home Show Intervention C. Pallet for Agit-Props D. A Web Site III. DRAINAGE AND WASTE WATER Page 5-10 A. A List of Opportunities for Drainage and Waste Water 1. Artist Consultant Opportunities on Regional Projects 2. In the Home 3. Neighborhood 4. Watersheds IV. SOLID WASTE & RECOVERY Page 10-13 A. Metro Mining 1. Curbside Recycling 2. Rebanco Recycling 3. Three Artist Designed Products 4. Transfer Stations 5. The Trash Train 6. Yard Waste 7. SPU Storage Tanks V. POLLUTION Page 14 A. Air Pollution B. Water Pollution C. Sound Pollution D. Light Pollution E. Psychological Pollution VI. OPERA OF UTILITY Page 14

Poetic Utility

The exemplary image of the Kwakiutl stone pile driver, “Shark Head”, illustrates the poetic potential of art merged with utility. A threshold is before us. The Seattle Arts Commission and the Seattle Public Utility joined together to sponsor this mission. One could call a poetic utility a rare integrated possibility.

Pile Driver: Shark Head Salmon weirs were built across streams by the people of the northern and central coast, by pounding pointed stakes into the stream-bed with two-handed, heavy strikers. The crowning image of the pile driver is this shark head, a crest of the Eagle clan. The thumbs fit into the “eyes”; the rest of the fingers, on the other side, into “gill slits”.

Historically, artists involved in the western art movements of Constructivism, the Weimar Period, the Bauhaus, and to some extent the WPA were interested in participating in the public realm. This included commodities for the masses as well as combining design with public utility. Along the way we learned to refine, to clarify, we discovered that less is more, silence can be music, that ‘there’ needs to be there, and that art is foremost a gift, not a commodity…an old idea that the shark head pile driver drives home.

Pile Driver: Man with Headache

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(1)The Gift - Lewis Hyde

I. CONFLUENCES – THE COMING TOGETHER OF ARTIST AND SPU

Artists are communicators, facilitators, problem solvers and inventors. We also hold the option of deploying the trickster(1) card. Artists and those in the technical community share an approach to invention - an interest in the process and materials, a willingness to experiment and take creative risks and passion for adventure. Artists may well be suited to engage in discussions and solutions regarding SPU’s new strategic plan, which compliments a holistic effort inclusive of the arts. The strategic plan “big picture” must be a broadly based process of refinement and investigation with the intended gestalt, an illuminated community and utility. It is imperative that participating artists have a genuine desire to engage in a dialogue with SPU in whatever aspect of the utilities’ vast store of opportunities they find interesting, playing technical catch-up, if necessary. Artists will need to posses the ability to navigate the system and to refine to an essence a hybrid of utility and art. On the other hand, SPU and allies in the community need to be “brought up to speed” with the wide range of approaches employed by artists. The notion that artists are decorators does not meet the challenge we all face today. “Confluences” suggests some possible facilitation to get issues on the table, providing a reality check, and some methods of operating. The potential collaboration of artist with Seattle Public Utilities provides an opportunity to expand the scope and spirit of both SPU strategic plan and that of the artist wishing to create a meaningful response with utility. To increase the number and competency of artists engaged in publicly sited works the following recommendations are offered.

A. Navigational Boot Camp

Obstacles related to working with the public and city can often overshadow artists interested in bringing their talent out of the confines of the studio. Artists working in the public context often discover, occasionally too late, that this is not necessarily studio work and that the end result is more about process than about a signature product. They need new tools to examine the potential of this new direction in order to converse successfully. Therefore, interested artists could gather in order to learn from practitioners and administrators first hand experiences. Various approaches, case studies and hypothetical drills would be conducted to present a comprehensive overview to working in a public context, specifically with SPU.

B. Charette du Reality The next level after navigational boot camp would be a design charette, open to the public to consider available selected SPU projects. These are projects about to go into conceptual or schematic design. SPU project managers and engineers (and designers under contract) would describe

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each project and facilitate discussions, and then participants in the charette would work up an appropriate response to the projects. If an idea ‘clicks’ future discussions would be encouraged. The charette could work in tandem on the same day as the bootcamp, depending on the case load. This approach may serve more as a free-wheeling brainstorming session. The charette is probably a one-time event attempting to catch-up with projects currently on the table. Future projects of this nature requiring a short start-up time line could be assigned to an artist on retainer system.

C. Artists on Retainer After evaluating individual artists performances in the bootcamp workshop

and charette du reality, as well as a public call for “artists on retainer”, a select number of artists will be held “on retainer” with SAC. The artists on this list will be available to respond to projects. By designating this group of artists on retainer, SAC will be able to respond quickly and cost effectively to requests for artists participation on projects that are not often amenable to the lengthy time needed for artist selection processes. Another possibility is that these retained artists might be available as the ‘local firm’, (in a manner similar to that practiced in the architectural profession) consulting with artists selected by competition. These artists could provide an “aesthetic trust”, working on issues regarding projects undertaken by other City departments and programs such as the Seattle Conservation Corp., Parks Department, Housing and SEATRANS, to name a few. Some of these projects could be artist initiated. Technical support could be provided to the artists by the architectural/planning services of a firm such as Environmental Works, a (501C3) non-profit agency. Retained artists may negotiate their role and can elect to go off the list at any time to accept a SAC commission.

D. Requests for Qualifications

Presently, SAC selects an artist for major design projects by requiring submission of an RFQ or by organizing a limited invitational competition. This is an effective method of selection for projects with sizeable budgets and manageable timelines. Inclusion of an “ artist on retainer” on the selection panel will bring an important “in the trenches” perspective to the panel.

E. Peer Review

A peer panel design review of SPU/SAC works in progress is necessary to evaluate the level of engagement and consistency with the SPU strategic plan. This peer review could be that pool of artists which is held on retainer and work much like the Seattle Design Commission reviewing and commenting on city projects brought before them in a critical but constructive review. Other members of the panel would include the SPU arts program committee members and strategic planners.

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II. EVENTS OF UTILITY Interventions with “ready made events” such as the Torchlight Parade, and other civic parades and home shows would serve as a platform to inform and entertain the public. Do we call this infotainment? The following recommendations are suggested special events and interventions which could incorporate a wide spectrum of the arts community with a mutual objective which serves the goals and strategic plan of the SPU.

A. Utility Parade Intervention (In conjunction with the Torchlight Parade and/or other civic parades)

The torchlight parade is Seattle’s most prominent public parade and is a source of tremendous civic pride. However, outside of an occasional fire truck on the parade route, Seattle Public Utilities’ representation is scarce. An opportunity to promote environmental awareness and celebrate this community asset is being missed. By joining forces, Seattle Public Utilities and the arts community could introduce an entertaining and educational element to this well-attended parade. Humor would carry SPU’s strategic plan to the audience. Some ideas for informing and promoting awareness: • Brigade with push brooms sweeping away gas powered leaf blowers. • Toilet Bowl Brigade (based in Western Washington) • Sports utility van retrofit with drafthorse team (2 horse power), compost

scoops included. • Recyclers gleaning the audience for cans and paper – compare the

high volumes of trash left behind at the Torch Light Parade with next to nothing which is left at the Freemont Solstice Parade (a parade using recycled material).

• Bucket Brigade (from our water shed to your water table). • Vacuum truck - actually stopping to suck out a few personnel hatch

covers • An exhibition of significant, odd, unique SPU equipment from the motor

pool, prompting the audience to guess its function. • Readings, as if poetry, from technical SPU reports • Ballet of street sweeping vehicles – AKA Mierle Ukeles, Artist in

Residence with NYC Solid Waste Department. • Sponsor SPU awards for other non-SPU entries:

• The most economically driven float • Float using the most recycled material • Etc. as per SPU goals

B. Utility Home Show Intervention

In the face of diminishing resources and higher liabilities, “your urge to consume terrorizes you.” – Vancouver, B.C. graffiti

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The Home Show intervention would be a counter offer to the standard fare. Artists and designer “green products” which complement SPU goals of ecologically sound design, waste reduction and recycling, would occupy booths alongside others who are, perhaps, selling “consumables”. Utility home show interventions would be a combination of serious humor, cutting edge engineering, retrofits both pragmatic and practical. As a showcase of a world-class utility and as a leader in waste reduction and recycling, SPU could participate in a variety of existing ‘consumer’ and ‘Home Show’ venues. For instance, for three years now a group in Seattle has organized an international design competition using recycling materials. Last year this group was hosted by the Seattle Art Museum. Throughout the region, cottage industries are trying to make a go at providing environmentally sound goods and services. If we expect our recycled consumables to find a market, we need to encourage that market.

C. Pallet for Utility Agit-Props

The agit-prop “Joe Chemo” reached more people that just those who saw the billboard on which it appeared. The power of image could play an important roll proclaiming SPU’s agenda. Some concepts could float between prop and product such as bottling the Tolt and Cedar waters. The “Tolt tap” label depicting the tasting room at the Seattle Water Department relays the message, “It’s pure from Tolt to tap.” Recently this idea also was offered by both a city council person and the managing director of SPU, independent of this report. The time is right. Is the bottled Cedar River “bubbly”? In the world-class city of Vienna they have an institutional grade toilet paper which is made from recycled paper and repeatedly printed with (soy ink, I trust) “City of Wien”, ours would be poetic. Is it time we personally re-apply our recycled paper? Some of our recycled paper buyers have the capability to produce this and other interesting paper products. Artists and designers could assist with this product development. “Do not flush during Superbowl or major storm events” - perhaps one could flash this slogan on the television at appropriate times. The intent of this type of prop or intervention is to accommodate artists with varying disciplines and media in a less structured framework. There will be artists who do not want to collaborate or fit into a capital improvement project and yet have a powerful message that compliments SPU goals. This approach will keep the opportunities inclusive and the process lively.

D. A Web Site

A SAC/SPU web site may be a manageable way to keep cross-communications current with easy access to a developing/dynamic SPU

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Strategic Plan, similar to the computer game Civilization II, engaging a wide audience. An online civics/utility forum/game.

III. DRAINAGE AND WASTE WATER Overview

The Cartesian Grid dissolves, the urban watershed knows no boundaries. Regional governances of Seattle King County and Puget Sound are making assessments of water drainage, waste water, wildlife and stream habitat. The cost effective approach towards a sensible drainage and wastewater approach starts with sensible land use and zoning. Retrofitting bad land use practices is costly. Unfortunately, in some cases the only alternative is to aesthetically exploit the dysfunctional landscape teaching as well as healing! Artists could join this process providing a link with SPU arts projects. By thinking regionally and acting first at home, the cumulative effect would be more effective. Drainage begins at home. Each property has a hard surface runoff which could be creatively re-directed into a host of retro-fit uses. It is time to re-invent the cistern and the vital role it can play in reducing our need for water from the Tolt and Cedar Watersheds, not to mention savings to rate payers. By re-diverting gray water to the flush toilet (until we get a composting toilet) and using the cistern water in our garden, bog or frog pond we reduce the demand on our sanitary/storm drain infrastructure avoiding contaminating our shorelines during storm events. By adding a “high drama” water conservation and landscaping approach, water needs and contamination will diminish. Artist home lab sites will foster ideas. The Home Show could popularize these ideas. Within the city, various watersheds and drainage issues are being targeted; others await discovery. Sites range from the intensely urban watersheds (see appendix regarding Vine Street and Green Street) to the neighborhood Ravenna Daylighting Project. Daylighting and habitat enhancement has been a shared focus between the community and SPU. Artists wishing to interact with some aspect of these projects could do well to familiarize themselves with the particular project’s history, community and objectives. On a city and regional scale, artists could join the strategic table to address aesthetic and functional issues of hydrology, thereby creating a paradigm shift from Rome, the city of fountains, to Seattle, the city of replenishing water works, a direct and poetic update on Leonardo da Vinci’s work with water. A. A List of Opportunities for Drainage and Wastewater

Opportunities 1. Artist Consultant Opportunities on Regional Projects: These participating artists can cross-reference their findings with the

arts master plans for SPU. In this way, there can be a coordinated effort between policy planning and implementation.

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a) Regional surface water needs assessment (RNA): The purpose of this assessment is to identify water quality, flood

control and habitat needs within King County, the estimated cost running between $75 million to $200 million.

b) The Endangered Species Act (ESA) 1998 National Marine

Fisheries will identify west coast Chinook as a potential candidate for ESA listing. Projects within the urban watersheds may be impacted. The upcoming Fauntleroy Fish Ladder may serve as a case study.

c) SPU comprehensive drainage: This is a wide range opportunity for artists to look at opportunities

ranging from infrastructure education, regulation and development. This study will also be focused on landslides, therefore a significant opportunity for sculptural mass displacement.

d) Because Seattle is a major contributor to Metro’s waste water

volumes it seems appropriate that artists join in with SPU during joint CIP discussions.

2. In the Home:

This is an opportunity for artists to use their own dwelling as a laboratory and module, publishing examples on a “Home Show” web site or creating a booth at the “Home Show”. As a rate payer, these solutions will provide front end savings by lowering water and combined utility bills. Outstanding pilot projects would eventually be shown at the Home Show relating interventions. a) Innovating low water toilets and gray water applications. b) Roof watershed/cistern designs and applications which embrace

both art and science. c) Innovations to the notion of “lawn” and “landscaping” .

3. Neighborhood: It is generally advisable that artists choose a neighborhood they live in

and/or are familiar with since daily monitoring of some projects may be necessary. Some work may need to be incrementally placed as one gets a “feel” for acceptable thresholds within that neighborhood. The following small scale projects could be accomplished through the charette du reality and/or artist or retainer as an introduction to opportunities.

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a) Tree Lawns and Ditches as a Wetlands Resource: The margin between sidewalk and curb is an untapped resource for

community surface runoff projects. Tree lawns could become more effective in groundwater charging and in previously unincorporated Seattle, ditches along side roadways are poised for innovative projects. The headwaters for both Haller Lake and Pipers Creek rely on runnels and ditches channeling the source. Mitigating the surface runoff is imperative to the watershed’s health.

b) In an effort to mitigate and retain surface runoff, the public and

private sector landscape approaches can do more about innovative landscaping which rely on natural seasons and systems rather than cosmetic “shrubbing”.

c) Design build for local bio swale ditch/sidewalk conflicts:

Cedar River Watershed has surplus Cedar pipeline stays which could be recycled for a variety of uses (as has happened in the past by the Water Department) including boardwalks over bio swales and amenities along the route of the new pipeline from watershed to home.

d) Neighborhood springs, bogs and wetlands: Landscape enhancement, such as a community blueberry bog.

Neighborhood pea patches and parks as interventions sites for these social and utility artworks. These are social art works.

e) Working with low cost housing and developers in the designing of

yards and neighborhoods by incorporating a holistic integrated drainage/gray water system.

4. Watersheds: The following watersheds represent areas of focus for SPU and/or community advocacy groups. They all present opportunities for artist to address education and acknowledgment of watershed and drainage boundaries. Expressing City plumbing intakes and outfalls pertaining to drainage, surface toxins and biofiltration, education, daylighting retention enhancement and fish and wildlife habitat. a) Longfellow Creek Watershed, Delridge Drainage Basin Phase II,

Webster Street Detention Habitat Enhancement: The major aesthetic challenge with this project will be the approach

of reinventing the creek as we set its new course through the Port of Seattle to a new “outfall”

b) Thornton Creek Watershed Habitat Enhancement and Education: Access to a stream which runs primarily through private property is

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a long-term zoning/buy back proposition. This watershed extends beyond Seattle’s northern boundary, illustrating natural vs. artificial boundaries. What metaphors of meaning could we draw from this? Thornton Creek Watershed begins in Shoreline, Boeing Creek Watershed begins in Seattle just south of 145th.

c) Pipers Creek Watershed: This watershed serves as a positive example of community

involvement. d) Ravenna Creek Watershed Daylighting Design Opportunities: This project is a prime example of bad land use policies of the past

creating a difficult solution because of present ownership resistance to logic. This project is a good candidate for agit props directed at consumers at University Village. Design solutions are more akin to the aqueducts of Rome, of defying topography to get water from one point to another. Overwhelming community consensus sometimes cannot undo the self-interests of a few.

e) Fauntleroy Fish Ladder CIP: It is the wish of the selection committee that the artwork would be

more about social and structural innovation and less about surface modulation.

f) Vine Street and Green Street: Growing Vine Street/Green Street is an urban design project

underway in Seattle’s Denny Regrade neighborhood. The goal is to create a pedestrian-friendly environment that brings nature back to the city and provides a pleasant, healthy place to live and work. A significant feature of the project is an open watercourse fed by stormwater runoff from the adjacent street and buildings’ roof watersheds. Prototypes of the watercourse and associated water features will provide a laboratory for the exploration and examination of the potential of urban stormwater management in an established and rapidly growing urban area. An ultimate goal of the watercourse is to provide biotreatment of stormwater from the Vine Street “watershed” to a degree that the stormwater, under normal storm conditions, may be discharged directly into Elliott Bay. The Vine Street/Green Street Neighborhood Organization seeks funding to provide technical assistance in the design of the watercourse and to provide educational outreach to interested

public groups regarding the efficacy of treating stormwater in a dense urban environment. It is expected that the things learned in this urban stormwater “laboratory” will be applicable to other stormwater management efforts.(2)

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(2) Growing Vine Street Report - Vine Street Design Team: Don Carlson, Buster Simpson, Peggy Gaynor,

Greg Waddell and Aidan Stretch (3)

Dialogue entlang der Donau; Wien, Australia - Buster Simpson 1994

g) System Wide Watershed Sites

i) Shopping center parking lot drainage projects. Note: When I started this residency I photographed one of

Seattle’s first shopping center detention ponds at Aurora and 130th. It was a wonderful open pond which nature was reclaiming. Three months later a new Albertsons scraped the site clean and culvertized the retention pond below grade loosing this wonderful amenity to a mindless “shrubbing up”.

ii) Retrofit of parks and projects which did not adequately address

issues regarding surface runoff. The City Parks Departments need to join the SPU Strategic

Plan. As managers of major open space and waterways, their agenda is not clear.

h) Large Tuning Fork Activating the Resonating Frequency of

Seattle’s Plumbing - Buster Simpson(3) i) See Lorna Jordan’s Arts Master Plan as Artist in Residence SPU

for additional considerations. IV. SOLID WASTE AND SUSTAINABILITY “……conspicuous consumption, that’s the life for me…….”, Jeff Moidel -Music and lyrics performed by the Seattle Children’s Theatre Workshop,

Summer 1997. The real solution is not to create the problem. Overview Seattle Residence recycle nearly 50% of it’s solid waste. Recycling is a necessity and commendable enterprise, but will not solve the issue of economic and environmental sustainability. When the cost includes “natural capital”, which presently is not factored into the balance sheet, there will be a significant reduction in “waste” simply because it is sustainable economics. Artist working with sold waste facilities should acknowledge both issues. SPU is currently updating it’s 1989 solid waste comprehensive plan. The major CIP affects the

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North and South Transfer Centers and will provide an opportunity for design team collaboration. The remaining opportunities come closer to artist initiated projects.

The Opportunities A) Metro Mining

1) Curbside Recycling: The put and take opportunities on the yearly major pickup presented is

a major recycling/social event. People meet people while picking through other peoples’ trash. This program is being re-evaluated. Artists have to some extent (along with recyclers) take the opportunity to collect “raw material” for their livelihood/art projects. This approach toward making one’s trash another’s treasure is much more accessible than the North and South Transfer Centers. I recommend a full evaluation of this program and how it might be a positive contribution to the community. At least a social anthropologist should document the trash pile and note the duration time between purchase and discarding. My observation puts the bulk of items at 3-5 years - so much for durable goods, and durable culture.

• Mobilize Seattle’s glass arts community in recycling glass as art. Cast 5 Gallon Water Bottles for SPU - Cedar River bottled water

(complete with Peter DeLory photo lable of SPU water series). • The Heineken bottle house update. • Art made from plastic, cans, etc. Part of a billboard/Agit Prop

campaign. • Markers, plaques and keys to the City conceived in unique pre

and post consumer materials. 2) Rebanco Recycling: Access to this private company is difficult. However it might be

possible to interest the buyers of our recycled paper into an expanded paper line as noted in the Agit Prop toilet paper suggestion. A purchasing consortium of cities could specify 100% recycled paper products. Composting of paper fiber could be developed with artist in residence at the factory.

3) Artist Designed Products: An approach to empower trash with value. The stream of recyclable

material could be captured at the source (i.e. bottles at the tavern) or at the “transfer store” (see transfer stations). As mentioned in the Home show segment, there are international design competitions for the use of recycled material for realistic competitive products. Pre and post consumer material is often as good as virgin materials. Artist could also design products which aid in recycling, new composters,

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etc. or the re-designing of Duchamps’ “ready made” piece the bottle drying rack, could serve as a model for a modern plastic bag drying rack.

4) Transfer Stations:

a) Transfer station could be a machine, a store and an “art gallery.” The machine is it’s primary function, to process the vast volumes of

material in a timely and safe manner. Trash is dynamic so it must be the facility. Dust suppression, odor control and noise dampening are all issues to be tacked by the upcoming CIP for both the North and South Transfer Stations.

Because there is occasionally material which could have a second

life, a transfer store needs to be established (as per recommendations and operational support by the Fremont Art Association.)

Many citizens would prefer to see their reusable discards recycled.

The gleaners would transfer materials to a safe site open to the public.

The gallery is a mix of pedestals for unique “ready mades” or

recycled works of art. These pedestals could be sited along the public edge of the facility or flank the drive-thru route. Agit props in the form of work on billboards could convey issues consistent with the facilities mission. This potential should be considered by the CIP design teams with the involvement of the adjacent community.

b) The landscape budget could be re-directed to more appropriate

functions consistent with the recycling goals of SPU and some programs offered by the Fremont Art Association. (See Appendix)

5) The Trash Train:

At least twice a week a long odiferous train lumbers through town late at night carrying yesterday’s consumed consumables to some distant improvised fillscape. a) Cultural anthropological study b) A dinner train

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6) Yard Waste: Artist involvement similar to the approach for drainage and home and

Home Show exposure. a) Innovative landscaping approaches to minimize grass clippings.

i) Sheep grazing on park lands and tree lawns with sheepdog and

shepherd performance. Wool is given to weavers, dung to gardeners. This method was used by Olmstead and recently the City of Edmonton, Alberta Canada.

ii) Urban logging is a resource awaiting entrepreneurialship.

Presently the large volume of trees which get cut, or victims of blow down, get rendered into chips and are often hauled to a landfill, not to a compost facility. Many of these trees are large and of unique wood types which, when milled, would have a demand among the various wood craft industries. Portable saw mill operations could glean from the urban forest this down “timber” resource. Smaller woods could be chipped and sold for pulp or the making of particle or strand board.

iii) Food waste transfer facility: Is this a revisit of a hog farm? In a

Seattle neighborhood, a traffic calming circle is being designed as a community composting site.

7) SPU Storage Yards: a) At some of the old engineering facility yards, there exists an

accumulation of material as a resource. An example: Old steel trolley rails become structural supports for hand rails and retainer walls about town. Historically, this is a subtle but important gesture on part of SPU retrofit ad hock cost effective approach. Artists could extend this approach complementing SPU utilitarian tradition. These yards also have a stock pile of concrete pipe and other miscellaneous hardware. SPU yard maintenance directors should be encouraged to allow accumulations of recyclables.

b) A similar surplus material situation presently exists at Cedar River

Watershed Facilities Headquarters. Stacks of cedar pipe stays await re-use. This timber could be used for a number of projects such as amenities along the steel pipe water line right of way which replaced these stays. Another use could be the construction of north end ditches where pedestrian and ditch compete for space. See: SLI #49 Final Staff Report dated June 16, 1997 regarding ditch/sidewalk design considerations in the previously unincorporated city.

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V. POLLUTION Effluence or Affluence Issues A) Air Pollution - high water markers for global warming

B) Water Pollution

C) Sound Pollution

D) Light Pollution E) Psychological Pollution

VI. IN SUMMATION: AN OPERA OF UTILITY To be simulcast with live feeds from Opera House to our house. Factory sirens and steam whistles call to curtain A piling, hand driven, sets the cadence to a technical reading A live feed of reservoirs, filling to subterranean runnels draining Microbes digesting the surface detritus as pot holes are a filling A shadow play of passenger pigeons take flight as consumables compact The trash train rumbles past into the night.

CURTAIN

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