Black Lattice and the Assault on Reason

Black ice, a kind of intersecting lattice, crept across the sky and the same voice kept emerging: "We are not human."

But he knew that already. 

Betrayed, exhausted in a sense, he bowed out of the cavalcade for a period. 

The human voices were different; a mix of radio messages and overheard conversations, even overheard intents. 

Why the geniuses in national intelligence would post people who didn't like him he would never know. 

"We're not all bad," an explanation he had heard all too often as they tried to assure him, while another repeated bitterly, "He's lucky to be alive". 

Betray yourself. Betray your country. 

"Humans are like fireflies, their lifespans are so brief," he said at the local tavern, apropos of absolutely nothing; as the storms circled above.

Wolves circled the encampment, not to attack but to protect. 

We are feline and monstrous, everything you have always feared. 

"Where are they from? The Andromeda system?"

If anything made sense in these brief spans, it was that there were ways to escape the confines of the flesh; the termination of life and pleasure, the bonds in which we all, as humans, are bound.

Appear near when you are far. Appear far when you are near. 

If the rivers of history... How little they cared. 

The country is already lost. We lie amongst the ruins. 

Here in NSW there was a passing return to normality, a brief cessation of rain and appalling weather, the utter horror of lockdowns and the insanity of government, the brutality and cruelty inherent within the society's framework. 

An election had to be called. 

The politics were as vile as the weather. 

He would be there for them. They would be here for him. There was nothing terrifying about it, if adopted in the right spirit. 

He did not like growing older; although he had always been old before his time.

The spirit manifests. The darkness dissolves. The old stairway to heaven imagery; except there was no stairway and no heaven, there was a gateway to a distant, in human spans, time, a sacred time. 

And so they prepared the path. 

And he went quietly about his duties. 

And all was well; for another brief day. 

Another brief day. 

***

MAINSTREAM NEWS 

A Red Cross convoy intended to evacuate survivors from the besieged city of Mariupol is mounting a second rescue mission after a first attempt was foiled by fierce fighting and Russian shelling.

The latest bid to reach and extract survivors comes as as Russian forces look to be regrouping for new attacks in the southeast.

Mariupol, encircled since the early days of Russia’s five-week-old invasion, has been Moscow’s main target in Ukraine’s southeastern region of Donbas.

Tens of thousands of people there are trapped with scant access to food and water.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) sent a team on Friday to lead a convoy of about 54 Ukrainian buses and other private vehicles out of the city, but they turned back, saying conditions made it impossible to proceed.

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With Australia just days away from the likely start of a federal election campaign, new polling suggests Scott Morrison is losing support as preferred Coalition leader, let alone preferred prime minister.

Roy Morgan figures released Friday show 46 per cent of Australians would prefer Treasurer Josh Frydenberg to lead a Liberal government ahead of the actual Prime Minister, Mr Morrison, on just 28.5 per cent.

The survey, conducted after Mr Frydenberg handed down the federal budget this week, represents a rise of 7.5 percentage points since February in those preferring him as Liberal leader.

Mr Morrison dropped 2.5 points in the same period.

The bad news for Mr Morrison came in the same week that Roy Morgan polling found ALP leads the Coalition 55.5 per cent to 44.5 per cent on a two-party preferred basis.

It also comes as a damaging New South Wales Liberal Party preselection tussle will continue into next week after a judge said he would not rule on a crucial court case Friday.

“The results of this special Roy Morgan SMS Poll show that if the L-NP government wants to maximise its chances of re-election this year it must make a late change and elevate Treasurer Josh Frydenberg to the top job,” Roy Morgan CEO Michele Levine said.

“Such a move is not unprecedented, as former long-serving Australian prime minister Bob Hawke only became the leader of the Labor Party on the day the 1983 federal election was called by then-prime minister Malcom Fraser,” she added.

Respondents to the Coalition leadership survey were asked to choose between Mr Morrison, Mr Frydenberg and Defence Minister Peter Dutton as their preferred Coalition leader heading into the election.

Just 14 per cent of those surveyed nominated Mr Dutton as preferred leader (up 1.5 points), while 10.5 per cent opted for “someone else”.