the    train   is    a   dashing   arrow 
 over              the               sea. 
                                     
                                    
                                     
 look   closer   -    it's   not   water. 
                                    
                                  
                                    
 the  lowland which was once the  midriff 
 of  sweden.  the  salt  flats  span  for 
 hundreds of  miles. from a  narrow  line 
 of hills  the train lowers  itself  onto 
 the  crystals  and  shoots north, like a 
 syringe       into       a       baloon. 
                                  
                                
                                  
                                
                                  
 they  call  it the  "mandelbrot crater", 
 and it is the rest of a mining disaster. 
                                    
                                   
                                    
 sun hits the  four-railed track,  as  it 
 fractures  into  villages or  past them. 
 the people  here  are  pale  but  crisp, 
 reflections   of   some    other   world 
                                     
                                    
                                     
 they always seem a bit annoyed that  you 
 are   manifesting  them  into   physical 
 form.  like  if you  weren't  here, they 
 would  be  nothing  more  than  the  sun 
 against           the           platform