S.A.D — Summary

For a day or two a warm green taste escapes the diesel fumes, the heavy air hangs low & pulls us close enough to hear electric whispers on the wind announce the verdant birth of Spring…

then routine returns to smother it all in bullshit: birdsong becomes just more white noise we all ignore.

Spring soon ends & then, somehow languorous yet sudden, sullen evening light of summer begins again another doomed attempt at bringing colour into every hour of each dilating day.

Autumn begins: I hear violins, a sigh that heaves from everything, as the light takes on a melancholy tinge: austere admixture of fading green & deep orange as the once-whispering wind devours the trees.

Now snow falls like dove feathers laying quiet & still until dawn’s frail purity breaks beneath our feet, the mixed-up air already containing greater darkness, low hanging Sun; the light still bright but bleached out & luminescent, clouds lingering white phosphorus, as if the winter sky is a war crime above us.

Every year becomes this: the flower’s imperceptible blooming, slowly turning towards decay;

slow to remember & quick to forget how the season’s elision fucks with our head(s).

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"S.A.D" follows a year in a city, season by season, and the title hints at seasonal affective disorder. Spring arrives for only a day or two, a green taste slipping through the diesel fumes, before routine smothers it and even birdsong fades into background noise. Summer's evening light tries and fails to brighten every long hour. Autumn brings a sigh and a melancholy glow, with the wind stripping the trees. Winter is the bleakest: snow looks gentle, like dove feathers, but the bleached sky is compared to white phosphorus and a war crime.

The speaker sounds weary and quietly angry. Beauty keeps appearing, but people are too distracted to hold onto it, and the changing light seems to unsettle their minds. The blunt swearing in the last lines drops the lyrical tone, as if the speaker has run out of patience. The mood is heavy, restless, and worn down.

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