Nick Makoha
76
76
I
If this is what we know, then the year is 1976 and the air is thick
with everything coming. If this is not a war, then there will be
no need for an enemy. If there is a hero, then there will be death.
If history, being what it is, demands a hero. We could use the
DeLorean to jump back into time. If it were only that simple.
Then this text would be the experiment in which we are studying
time. It passes slower the more you are moving. I used to be
a scientist. Consider, for example, light emitted from a moving
source has a lower frequency. I am moving. When you change
your speed, you rotate the direction of time. This is how time
II
behaves when it is rotated - it becomes relative. We will begin
with a plane because you might have heard one pass by your
window. What is flying but a way to climb the air? We are at
30,000 feet on flight 139. What do you know of the Revolutionary
Cell? What do you know of Athens airport? What do you know
about Operation Thunderbolt? You may or may not have heard
of Yoni and what happened in 1976. In the movie, Yoni is the hero.
The known enemies are the terrorists lead by Bose. We are seven
days away from the 4th of July but this is not an American story.
We are heading to a foreign town on an airport runway on the
III
same day The Real Thing tops the charts with You To Me Are Everything.
The song will spend three weeks at number one. You might be asking
What does that band have to do with the terrorist operation?
It is in the first line. I would take the stars out of the sky for you
I want to tell you about the sky. I want to tell you about the
sounds of leaving. I may talk about Basquiat and what he knew
of Icarus. I don’t know where to begin so I may jump around in
search of a source code, in search of a known life, in search of
fire and something to displace us. There will be foreign dying.
But before we begin with these elements here is an advert.