Zoopraxiscope Sutra

Bodies in motion
Leave us lasting impressions.
Ghosts of an instant

Spring into action.
One thoroughbred’s stride is a
Feast for the senses:

This wheel of life
Makes all motion momentous.
Negatives don’t lie,

You are not dreaming—
The persistence of vision
Is no illusion.

Faster is truer.
Swift comes the answer: stills in
Succession shall make

Sense of commotion.
Dark horse on the loose, out of
Reason and Passion,

Teach us the secrets
Of your molten momentum,
Stealing a march on

Blind speculation.
Seconds shall be split into
Breathtaking fractions—

Motion no longer
A maelstrom, a miasma.
The future is now,

Flowing in focus:
This wheel of life makes all
Action auspicious.

Seize the daylight. Shoot
The works. Capture creation.
This is no time to

Ration compulsion.
One colt’s cloud of dust is an
Epic explosion.

Faster is truer.
Now we’re all seers. Out of
The whirlwind comes

Sweeping revision,
A procession of phantoms.
No magic lantern

Can hold a candle
To this running series of
Lightning exposures:

Blazing forms frozen,
Then spun back into motion.
Later is sooner,

Horses are wishes.
This wheel of life makes all
Vision voracious.

Motion has spoken.
You are not delirious.
Action breeds vision,

Shadows complete us.
This wheel of life turns all
Of us luminous.