https://longreads.com/2026/03/12/into-the-darkness/
"Afternoon at my grandparents’ house, dusty sun bolts across the old blue
carpet, and me sitting on the floor, staring up at a clock on the wall carved
from dark wood in the shape of a house. The iron weights that hang below the
clock are spruce cones; the tiny roof is delicately shingled. The minute hand
seems to drag until, finally, the hour strikes. A door opens, and a bird pops
out and chirps dustily. Cuckoo, cuckoo, cuckoo.
The first cuckoo clock was made in the 1730s in the Black Forest village of
Schönwald, which means “beautiful forest.” The bird in question was supposed to
be a rooster, but when the clockmaker tested his little leather bellows, the
rooster sounded rather anemic, and the cuckoo clock was born.
From darkness the cuckoo emerges and to darkness she returns. And I—child of
desert mountains and blasting sun—am enthralled and a little afraid. I await
that bird because she comes from a place I don’t understand, popping into the
chatter of our American living room and then retreating to the shadows,
leaving me sitting there alone, wondering why I cannot follow."
Via Esther Schindler.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
