A Hazy Shade of Postcolonial Melancholia

Is it still winter where you are? Do you have a dancing monkey to help you get through it? I was born semi-depressed in the middle of the 20th century. Veiled figures have accompanied me my entire life. It’s been hard work for them. But, as Charlie Chan said, “Nut easy to crack often empty.” Everything will make some kind of sense when a Soviet-era spacecraft, six decades after launch, finally splashes down in a neighbor’s aboveground pool with the dog astronaut aboard. Until then, an elephant is dreaming of its childhood in the bush, far away from the circus.