the Sand, the Phoenix and the Desert Rose

"Then I said, I shall die in my nest, and I shall multiply my days as the sand." Job 29:18

Sand. Its waves in a desert sea, roll roughly over, frothing dust foam, laying salty tastes on thirsty tongues, guiding winds through living fingerprints of impermanence, God's identity. Few know this, but from its grain grows fauna and flora as vivid as our own.

Our story starts in a wasteland where aught is squandered, where ruin is rebirth, where dying dunes pour onto progeny their ardent, arid love. A world of ageless autumn, mantles moulting, layers slipping off as leaves. One power endures in the eye of eternal change, finding sustenance in rasping, sharp sand.

Ere Desert knew boundary or beginning, the first seed of sand was sown in a pocket of night, sealed by a celestial pinch, sewn by a comet, as by needle and yarn. There it swigged the sparks of starts, twining each into a fiery feather, the first dune drawn from their gritted crackle, its matter erupting from solid sound. The first plume rose as a petal or leaf, gorging on the Sun, miming his mane with her own tangerine bristles, curling as ribs enclosing an empty chest, but not for long. Following this first outstretched finger, foliage unfolded, burst into life and flame, then coiled over the sandy nest, caging blaze in a hive of dactyls.

Gilded orb, mocking and psalming trochees to her Lover in the sky, she desired to rise to his side. Her nascent vanes braided themselves into wings, barb clutching barb, nets to trap air, a haul of light hooked within, melting no wax in its wake, illuming waves too slack to drown in. Her embrace did not eclipse her Lover, but gyred his rays, carrying day to each corner of Earth. He let two tears fall onto her skin, turned to umber obsidians, Phoenix eyes, sighting the radiance sifting through scissures in the passion of existence.

Curious to witness what pith was planted within, she veered her Vulcan orbs inward. In the darkness of black glass drifted burnished dots, atoms of her water. Realisation draws demise. She smiled, bent beak of siltstone, shrewd smile, tasting the last feather, tongue to drink the keen elixir of her cradle, now deathbed. One seif after another she quaffed until her thirst was quenched and her Realm gone, replaced by Eden's grove, a jungle of jade veiling the empyrean, its teal tiles roofing her mausoleum. Among the Orchard's woods, she chanced upon a tree of Cinnamon, whose bark reminded her of home, and nested in the broken twigs beneath it, engrafting and licking them into animation. In igneous terpsichore, Firebird and forest ashed into a waste of cindered barrows.

Upon a mound, an egg of myrrh lays, surrounded by stone blossoms, as poppies, spotting the sepulchre. Bred by maelstrom, built and sculpted from eddies, scratched into bloom, it feeds the fledgling born and dwelling in Desert's heart, where the newborn Phoenix drinks the dusty dew of Desert Roses.

Ketalar

Whatever was or was not confined by that svelte stream coursed its way under my skin, releasing its sweet body into my salted estuaries, sharp and scarlet by vice of their ferrous casket. Course uncaged, but body unblent, it travelled onward, gathering into a blister at the back of my brain, pressing the pillow as it flourished. There it negotiated the doors of my perception, and slid asunder the drapes of the stage, the dramaturge dropped his puppets about me, infused life but buried the edge glancing, gashing the depth of their eyes. Once alive, now waxen mannikins of taxidermied psyches, their skins seemed leathered, as my fingers felt, sliding, flowing over one another, gloves lubricated by cool lather. Not mine. Nor those foreign legs, limbs in exile.

Onwards floating, a hair's width above the bed, sails covered eyes and mast twisted, sinking the vessel and drawing living water to my loose lips. A gasp, savoured and spewed, a gulp of smog. I released it outside the window, from a modest pipe, whiffing beneath the tongueless chimney, a mere beacon for paper pigeons, pinions defiled yet safe from deflagration. Crows, cut-outs of deadly nightshade, nested in the smokestacks, distilling from soot some flat import as impinging as it was void, or slit the sky, shadow marionettes speaking hollow stories outside my Cave.

My sight shifted from item to individual, brief infinities lapsing before their forms sharpened, each stare stabilising a shaky world, deluding me into illusions of normalcy. Yet eldritch was my ensnarement in a slough of nowness, the past in ken and reach, but for a brigandine of reeds, an iron tent dissecting instant from reminiscence and future. I traced my life entire, but left it unpeeled, I'd flake away with the wallpaper of that chamber, eternally enclosed, a gap in time.

Independent/Bosch Technology Horizons essay... déjà vu?

I've tried my luck again. This time an essay on the way Technology and Engineering drive change in a country of my choice... It shall not be published in the Independent newspaper this time, but did not fall short of the shortlist, and even fetched a Highly Commended prize. I lay it here before you, a cheeky review of the redemption of a land many love to hate, in case you wish to read it:

"Speak of the devil

Harsh foreign policy, unhealthy relationship with science, bastion of the death penalty in the developed world, second worst polluter per capita and, never fear, greatest polluter overall! Can you hazard a guess as to the country in question?

In recent years the USA hasn't been a country one readily thinks of in relation to the word "change" (except perhaps "climate change") as it congeals into strict conservatism in almost all senses of the word. Almost. A citadel of change remains its saving grace, the 'balm in Gilead' that can clear away the black Raven upon our threshold, and help metamorphose our dying world into the zestful butterfly it deserves to be. A host of technological advances grown in the USA will be pivotal on the Eastern Front of our battle for a sustainable world.

One revolution borne out of these lands will change the pages of history, rather literally. In Massachusetts, the E Ink corporation has developed "e-paper", an electrophoretic display that works by shifting pigment particles, changing its reflective properties, and hence its colour. Crucially, electronic paper, unlike typical computer displays, emits no light nor needs any electricity to show the image, only to change it. Eye fatigue and energy use are thus reduced, crowning e-paper as paper's perfect replacement. Think of the interminable piles of paper we come across every day: newspapers, magazines, books, briefs, documents, instruction manuals, most of which we have only time to glance at before chucking away - the lifelines of our work and leisure are tautly bound to the death of countless trees. Yet readers based on e-paper, such as the Amazon Kindle and the Sony Reader, forecast the liberation from our arboreal shackles forever more.

But as we make the electronic switch, we must beware of our carbon footprint. Thankfully, today we see the edges of a flipping change in our IT mindset. For years we've felt in our flesh the undying urge toward ever more powerful machines, but today, the simplest of computers easily serve most of our needs. A host of Californian companies have taken the initiative to popularize computers on an unprecedented scale. Everex has introduced the gPC desktop and laptops like the gBook the Cloudbook, which are affordable and efficient by virtue of low wattage VIA processors and the less power-hungry Linux OS Ubuntu. Zonbu offers a similar deal, but in addition does away with a local hard drive, instead using a small flash memory device while storing most of the users' data online. NComputing goes a step further by marketing single computers that can power multiple users (up to 30 per unit), making public terminals far more efficient. The bottom line here is that a focus on efficiency and centralization can make technology available to anyone, whilst landing smoother rather than rougher on our environment.

But, you ask, how are you to power all this change? Bitter black gold, for all your green credentials? No, we need not get our hands dirty, as there's more than enough renewable energy to get by. Indeed, thanks to a number of US firms there has not been a better time for solar power, which is quickly striding forward in efficiency, availability, economy and, vitally, versatility. For instance, at the University of Delaware, Christina Honsberg and Allan Barnett have broken a record in solar efficiency, with 42.8% of solar energy transformed into electricity, by splitting light into different colour spectra and directing them to different materials that best absorb them. Peter Jiang at the University of Florida has used divine (or, rather, natural) inspiration by creating bumpy, moth eye-like solar panels that, unlike traditional silicon panels, reflect very little of the light projected onto them, making better use of its energy. Jin Zhang at UC Santa Cruz wants to use metal oxide nanoparticles and nanocrystals, “quantum dots”, to increase conversion efficiency through having electrical energy move more easily by hopping between quantum dots.

Easing the production of solar panels, Massachusetts firm Konarka is developing technology allowing us to print them on an inkjet printer, while in the New Jersey Institute of Technology, Somenath Mitra uses nanotechnology to design a solar panel material that can be painted onto any surface. Another company, Ausra, plans to place solar plants in direct contest with coal plants, by patching up the solar Achilles heel, inconstant availability, through storage of energy in the shape of hot steam, ready to be used instantly to create electricity. All this brings solar efficiency ever closer to the fated 1$/Watt, the magic number making solar power cheaper than coal.

Thus, technology can heal the ecological sins we have perpetrated - let's keep our faith and humbly embrace this saviour, harbinger of change, let her wash our oily hands."