“HE DASHED THROUGH (THE WOUNDED CITY)…”
By:
February 16, 2026
A series dedicated to poems, published c. 1900–1935, the Radium Age sf-adjacent themes of which include: dystopia and utopia, far-out mathematics and the fourth dimension, Afro-futurism, catastrophe, future war, new technologies, scientific breakthrough, dehumanization, cosmic awe, disenchantment and unseen forces, unknowable aliens and singularity. Research and selection by Joshua Glenn; thematic index here.
He dashed through (the wounded city) — if truth be told, he had no experience plundering as an interview journalist, he is luckily able to enjoy a slice of bread — he is a laborer who unearths the human psyche — he is also a laborer who unearths his own psyche — he sinks into the polychrome and reemerges — going up and down the spiral staircase
He is running within the crowds — from the window of a car that’s running at extreme speeds, finding interest in what similarly pries, assaults, and triumphs
The pathos of a wounded city! — what did all of you strike upon? — the track-crumbled road has exhausted everything to the strike of a pickaxe where the fresh blood endlessly drips and splashes on the sweaty skin of a ground spider — what are all of you trying to strike upon? — deep underground — incessantly — the crowd lying flat on the ground
He no longer had the composure to observe
Biu = biuura = bovaaara = biyaupiryu = piyerurururu = vieravihyurura = dadadododonidoni … the charging parrots of this city mowed down the bodies of countless people and charged forward above them all
(This violent phoenix lacking self-control! — where is it trying to crash?)
He raised his eyes — there, where tens of thousands of people squirmed, where tens of thousands of vehicles went crazy and tipped over, where houses pushed each other and grabbed each other and sank their teeth into each other — the elevated electric train tramped on all of their heads and flew off
He instantly imagined the most conspicuous crashing sound of the tall buildings — with the wheels and their reciprocal minus speed, the elevated electric train hit and penetrated the right flank of the imposing structures
His electric train is running — countless cities fall and countless homes warp and tree lines disperse
His heart disintegrates and passes out inside the absolute
ICE PEOPLE — strangely enough, there were no fires burning that day from the aurora that reminds one of the spring — (is the sun also a dead man?!) hearing the wailing voices of people — the ice already became an eternal petrified crystal, and a spectacular white palace went on forever to the extent of seeing — no trees, no grass, and likewise no greenery — not one little bird or one insect — where are the relics we call the relics of the world — what are they thinking and what are they trying to do
The illicit races come and go — whose magic were they trapped by — inside their visage, their ancestors couldn’t have deciphered — themselves democratized and mechanized, they were in no need of any ideologies — they saw the burning five-color fire — there seemed to be a road that must be followed — the blood of the whole body welled up — an indecipherable image had emerged — while boiling, their senses had been intoxicated — afar! Afar!
One moral energy started brewing in this group — they felt a certain power above the ice-field, ice-hats stirred — all of these illicit races came together in full force — Bravo! ……
The flashing blue-violet arrow! — red lines of rain! — the surging flames scorched the skies at once — people and their mouths sprayed and twisted their mysterious phonemes while dancing their bodies — without a moment to gasp, the unbroken lines of millions marched on the ice field
It started moving — the people who had absolutely lost their self control — they started an irregular movement that they could not stop, even if they had wanted to
A GIANT MAGNETIC ENERGY SWALLOWED THEM WHOLE
(the electric train is running while carrying him)……
— Excerpt from the first chapter of Nothing Day / Not Guilty (Part I), the author’s never-finished Futurist novel. Found in Spiral Staircase, a posthumous (1931) collection of the author’s poems translated in 2017 by Sho Sugita. The novel’s one-word title plays with the word for “not guilty” and a neologism, “nothing day.”
RADIUM AGE PROTO-SF POETRY: Stephen Spender’s THE PYLONS | George Sterling’s THE TESTIMONY OF THE SUNS | Archibald MacLeish’s EINSTEIN | Thomas Thornely’s THE ATOM | C.S. Lewis’s DYMER | Stephen Vincent Benét’s METROPOLITAN NIGHTMARE | Robert Frost’s FIRE AND ICE | Aldous Huxley’s FIFTH PHILOSOPHER’S SONG | Sara Teasdale’s “THERE WILL COME SOFT RAINS” | Edith Södergran’s ON FOOT I HAD TO… | Robert Graves’s WELSH INCIDENT | Nancy Cunard’s ZEPPELINS | D.H. Lawrence’s WELLSIAN FUTURES | & many more.