an overlay. And what dark mass appears 
 off-center in the hot sun-softened field, a fractal 
 shape I recognize, like a shadow on a scanned 
 lung, cast off the magic-lantern’s flame?— 
 reversed, unclear, this shape (I know) is Africa 
 as seen from underneath—the rafting Ark 
 where all imagined radiance began, 
 all shadow-show that plays across the silver membranes 
 separating us, and light from dark, 
 and life from memory, as glass from stain—