'Hypercamouflage' by Bernhard Holaschke at Bistro 21, Leipzig

hypercamouflage // when i passed out we knew singularity was near and blackout over for almost 15 yrs. we lost everything in that time. there were only rumors which reported of a large variety of missing stuff, missing data, missing memories. m-e-r-i-c-a was only a combination of letters without a meaning. // the only document that survived was an old movie on a reel. waterworld. we watched it a billion times. we had to learn it in school. we had to repeat the dialogues, calm and solemnly, we had to learn it by heart. we had the privilege to learn. // in the breaks we started carving a portrait of costner into the black marble in front of our shelter. his long and lovely wet hair. his gaze to the horizon, there was water everywhere of a deep blue hue. we could see it. in the black stone, there was an ocean. // we knew coma was a sweet sleep for the innocent. we knew there would be no dreams, but we were not afraid. we had to stick to the machines, we had to trust them. // on our way to the labs we asked ourselves a thousand times: everything good? we answered ourselves a thousand times: everything good. // we gathered in small groups on the lawn, dressed in white linen, our faces covered with warm tar for camouflage, for becoming the same. // we were waiting for the sun which has been gone for years now. it was a slow encounter, a sluggish victory over the sun. there was only one cloud around the globe. no one knew who we were. // the sperm banks were crowded in these times. the high-potentials were staging never-ending fights in the suburbs. the underperformers were swept away by the acid rain. // the ark was empty. only our ancestors came there once in a year. a-l-b-e-r-i-c didn't show up. // the mother ship was empty. everybody was waiting for something. there were no signs in these days. // we knew coma was a sweet sleep. we knew it woudn't last forever. we had to stick to the machines, to the tubes and wires, we had to trust them. we felt the coffee circulating in our veins. // we knew freezing was a slow procedure. we fell into a doze, no one was moving. we all looked like brothers. we all looked like sisters. we felt the bones shaking in our bodies, although there were no bones in the bodies. // we knew ghosts will come and kiss our eyeballs. we knew everything was mind. we knew the riddles the ancestors gave us and how to solve them. so there were no riddles anymore. // we knew being woke was a frenzy. we looked at each other like siblings and indeed we were. we knew being conscious was a craze. [Е]