Étude Circular

This is ... basically a poem that circles in on itself from any one of three links given after its opening. Reading through every possible branch takes only a couple of minutes, but what does it all mean? It feels like one of those wilfully abstruse art-for-art's-sake things that never really say what they mean, inviting you to construct your own meaning from the imagery presented.

Only I don't really much care for this. It feels kind of pointless. The point of veiled meanings in poetry, I think, is to subtly slide the meaning into the reader, to make them feel the meaning rather than simply read it. But the wilfully abstruse school of poetry veils its meaning much too heavily, to the point where I suspect there's actually nothing underneath.

Also, it wasn't much fun, being in no way a game. This isn't always an issue; there are works of IF that succeed without being games. But if I can't extract a story and I can't enjoy a game, what else is left to me?

Perhaps if I were in the mood to sit down and explore hidden meanings ... but I'm not.

Breakfast is a clove cigarette and yesterday's coffee, black.