[I — SOMETHING IS EARLY] Pendulmancer sees something, Just beyond the proper place, Not quite gone and not quite present, Something standing out of phase. A moment has a border. A moment has a door. But something has stepped through it And isn't where it was before. Something is here, But not entirely now. Something is here, But I cannot say how. [II — THE SILVER-PINK WATCHER] Silver-pink beneath the watching, There and then beyond my sight, Standing where the others cannot, Gone before I turn toward it. Did it come? Was it leaving? Was it ever standing there? I cannot tell the difference Between arriving and being there. Something was here, But not entirely then. Something was watching Before we knew when. [III — THE PURPLE-VIOLET WATCHER] Purple-violet follows after, Another watcher takes its place. Two colors at the edge of seeing, Neither offering a face. I look toward the first one. I find the second instead. I turn toward where the second stood. There is nothing there. Were they waiting? Were they leaving? Were they watching us arrive? Were we seeing something distant, Or something passing through our time? [IV — THE EDGE OF VISION] There— At the edge. Gone. There— Behind the turning. Gone. The same disturbance returns again, But never quite the same. I know I've seen this moment. I don't know when. [V — THE RAINWATER] Rain gathers in the water. I look down. I see myself. Then I see another. A doubled shape beneath the surface, Standing where no one stands. I lift my eyes. Nothing. I look again. There. Not behind me. Not beside me. Somewhere else. When did the reflection arrive? When did it learn my face? Why does it stand inside the water When I have not yet moved away? [VI — THE ROPE] Pendulmancer coils the rope. Round. Again. Round. Again. The motion finds its measure. The measure finds its song. Then the song begins the motion Before the motion has begun. Round. Again. Round. Again. I have heard this already. But I haven't heard it yet. [VII — BEFORE] A thing happens. I know it. Not because I remember it. Because something inside me knows what follows. The watcher comes. I have seen it. The rain falls. I have seen it. The rope turns through Pendulmancer's hands. I have seen it. Yet each one is waiting for the moment I remember. [VIII — AFTER] Then something has already happened Before anyone says it has. The evidence arrives first. The consequence follows later. A footprint waits for the foot. A reflection waits for the face. A memory waits for the event. And somewhere beyond the moment, something waits for us. [IX — THE WATCHERS] Silver-pink. Purple-violet. At the edge. Then gone. Then somewhere else. No explanation. No answer. Only watching. Did we see them? Or did they see us? Did they arrive? Or had they always been there? [X — THE PORTAL MOUTH] Then the world opens. The Portal Mouth. A passage larger than the road beneath us, Larger than the distance we thought we knew. Something passes through. Something reaches across. The boundaries that held the moments together do not seem so certain anymore. [XI — THE DREAMING ENTITY] Something enormous is dreaming. Not beside us. Not above us. Something whose scale makes the watchers seem like marks upon a page. We cannot comprehend its whole shape. We know only what happens around it. Then it dies. The Portal Mouth ends. The great presence is gone. But the questions remain. [XII — THE SONG REMEMBERS] Pendulmancer coils the rope. Round. Again. I have heard this before. The watcher stands beyond the moment. Silver-pink. Purple-violet. The rain gathers. The reflection waits. The Portal opens. Something dreams. Something dies. And now— I remember the beginning. [XIII — THE BEGINNING AGAIN] Pendulmancer sees something, Just beyond the proper place, Not quite gone and not quite present, Something standing out of phase. A moment has a border. A moment has a door. But something has stepped through it— And I have seen this all before. [FINAL] I looked where they had been. There was nothing there. I looked again. Still nothing. Then I understood. Nothing had left. Nothing had arrived. Nothing had disappeared. It was simply elsewhere in time.
