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An Excerpt from “Medium Warp,” by Mike Oliphant, our 2018 Gas Station Winner

  • by Weldon Ryckman
  • Posted on August 5, 2018June 25, 2020

Conditional Ascension in JavaScript

if (condition1) {
block of code to be executed if condition1 is true
} else if (condition2) {
block of code to be executed if the condition1 is false and condition2 is true
} else {
block of code to be executed if the condition1 is false and condition2 is false
}

if (I jump) {

my falling hand will reach and find

my other hand,

all of me in one long spoke

} else if (my fingers dove-tail together)

my empty mouth wide open,

between my arms, a whole wind;

} else {

what an awful bird I am;

what bastard of flight holds fast

to so many smooth stones;

}

if (I house you, O hole-in-the-holy-of-holies) {

my hands make a cup for you,

palms up, enough space in there

to fit a few toothed peach pits;

} else if (a third of you in there is dove) {

my asking will whisper

its way through your pneumatic bones

and molt you down to a shiver;

} else {

you don’t answer and the answer

is yes is yes is yes;

}

if (I marry my ear to earth to hear its inner rustlings) {

it only takes two knocks to know

who all is down there;

} else if (I have no avian instinct) {

no internal imprint of stars guides me,

my vision isn’t saying: This is North;

} else if (I wear my one light like an eye) {

the miner’s hand is in me,

my hand holds a cage, praying;

} else {

the bird inside keeps quiet;

}

if (horizon is gold standard of dividing) {

a binary: Its ups, downs

that’s that;

} else if (an elm beneath bears fruit) {

blooms soon-to-be wind-blown

blossoms that sail like thumbnails, down.

} else {

what you see of their scatter is not

the same scatter I see;

}

if (I put me in perfect dark, the cave kind) {

I hold up my open palm

and for all I know I look at nothing;

} else if (I make of me whatever I need) {

a web of love and life lines,

a minotaur, sword-swallower, a whole

flowerless vessel;

} else if (I am all in here) {

no height allows for same thinglessness

} else {

even looking down is only looking;

}


Mike Oliphant received his MFA at Western Washington University, and is Consulting Editor of the Bellingham Review. A portion of his collection Medium Warp was the recipient of the 2018 Gas Station Prize. He was a 2017 Pushcart Nominee and his short fiction and poetry are either forthcoming or have appeared in Isthmus, Psaltery & Lyre, IDK Magazine, Shooter Literary Magazine, NANO Fiction, and elsewhere.

Posted in POETRY, SUBMITTED WORKS, THIN AIR ONLINETagged bellingham review, code, digital, digitality, gas station, gas station prize, java, mike oliphant, poetry, thin air

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Thin Air Magazine is a non-profit, graduate-run literary magazine published by Northern Arizona University

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