Photo Story: At a speed of 0.5 inches per second

Close up of a snail.The heartbeat is fast and sharp, except no one knows where the snail’s heart is. It keeps gold dust inside its shell, for times of trouble. Its trail is golden and glittery, not sticky-grey as is commonly thought. Zoologists claim that snails can fall in love, but the gravel path is bumpy. Never once looking back, the snail glides forward, muscles contracting, this life, this life. It hums to itself, songs in snail-language, a disappearing language. The journey from A to B is slow and almost forever. Suddenly, one day, it has reached Z. Look, its shell has started cracking.

 

Nora Nadjarian is a poet and writer from Cyprus. Her work was included, among others, in Europa 28 (Comma Press, 2020) and placed in the Reflex Fiction flash competition (2021).

Photographer: maaddin

2 Responses to “Photo Story: At a speed of 0.5 inches per second”

  1. chungus says:

    The heartbeat is fast and sharp, except no one knows where the snail’s heart is. It keeps gold dust inside its shell, for times of trouble. Its trail is golden and glittery, not sticky-grey as is commonly thought. Zoologists claim that snails can fall in love, but the gravel path is bumpy. Never once looking back, the snail glides forward, muscles contracting, this life, this life. It hums to itself, songs in snail-language, a disappearing language. The journey from A to B is slow and almost forever. Suddenly, one day, it has reached Z. Look, its shell has started cracking.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *