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