hard to find is a black cat in a dark room—if there is no cat
The aliens left skeletons of bronze. I imagined a metal more exotic. I imagined a message more messianic, a magical monolith path to the stars. Instead, these were skeletons of the Egyptian Mau, an ordinary Earth cat.
First found in a cave on Peacock Mountain, The Mau of Mars made for a B movie. Was it Felis’ musical voice or twitching tail? Cheetah speed or purr-sonality? Did it matter that Mau was domesticated during our Earthly bronze age?
Were these sculptors installing art for its own sake across the cosmos? Insight came by comparing postures of all the cats together, moving about at an easy pace, yet as if avoiding some unknown in each room.
We sought a black cat in a dark cave to confess to us its celestial secrets. There was a sculpture of a creature, a skeleton of a message, but no cat in the hollows of Pavonis mons despite our determination to find one.
A cat minus the cat is the speed, and the loyalty, and the music. We sought an artifact and found a statement. Content as container of greater content. How might an advanced mind speak to us, primitive by comparison?
How could we speak to natures creatures less able to understand? With unfolding manifolds of messages. By giving them the proper timber to frame a ladder to climb the roof to view the world beyond.
We turned to a language where action precedes objects. Where verbs begat nouns, essence over existence. In that we saw the cat, felt its presence, and began to feel all around us more than inventory or objectives.
Beings living in the doing, as words that are events. Like saying you may have it, gives. Like saying thank you, gives back. It’s easy to find is a Martian in a lit room, especially when you remove the room. The Martians were all around us.
