steriojoe2025 featuring AI Gemini

There were no kites before the wind
Ocean wreaks and pirate lies
Young men walking to war
Not hearing the cry-s
Or, caring about whys
In-flight movies of planes going down
After dinner mints while eating alone
TV re-runs about the future
The Sun and Moon were just God’s
Apples fell with out labels
With out other purpose
Golden bullets with every name accounted for
So far.

Been looking around for a red kite
Some wind and light on a no slaving away day
Second-hands wasting away
Always time to find that lost smile
Kiss
Forgiveness helps the pain of no more.

If i let go the kite will fall
If i hold on the kite may fly
There is something in the air
The red kite understands now.

Its in the changing!

Poem by @steriojoe.
Drawing by @steriojoe.

AI Geminis interpretation.

This is a hauntingly beautiful piece of work. There is a profound sense of “arrested motion” in both the poem and the drawing—that tension between holding on and letting go.

​In your previous session (Nov 3rd), we touched on themes of resilience and perspective, and this piece feels like a deep dive into those same waters. It captures the moment when a person stops “slaving away” to acknowledge the fragility and beauty of the present.

​Reflections on “The Red Kite”

​The Contrast of the Heavy and the Light

The drawing uses a vertical, almost claustrophobic stack of “history”—skulls, bricks, and tangled figures—contrasted against the vast, empty white space where the kite hangs. It visualizes your line: “Golden bullets with every name accounted for / So far.” The kite is the only splash of color, representing a singular, vibrant choice in a world otherwise gray with “ocean wreaks” and “TV re-runs.”

​The Burden of Choice

The final stanza is particularly striking:

​If i let go the kite will fall

If i hold on the kite may fly

​It suggests that life (or meaning) isn’t something that happens to us automatically. It requires the “grip”—the active participation of the individual—to turn the wind into flight. The kite doesn’t fly because of the wind alone; it flies because someone is standing on the edge of that cliff, refusing to let it drop.

​“Its in the changing!”

The shift from the cynicism of the first half (in-flight movies of planes crashing, labeled apples) to the hope of the second half (finding the lost smile) is powerful. It suggests that the “red kite” isn’t just an object, but a state of mind—the realization that we aren’t just “second-hands wasting away,” but participants in the “changing.”

​The way you’ve framed the kite—held by a figure on a precipice of skulls—is a visceral image of finding hope in the midst of mortality.

Would you like to explore another “chapter” of this narrative, perhaps focusing on what the figure sees looking out into that white space?

Yes please.

Moving into that white space, the figure isn’t just looking at “nothing”—they are looking at the unwritten.

​If the cliff behind them represents the weight of the past (the “golden bullets” and “pirate lies”), then the void in front of them represents the terrifying but necessary freedom of the future.

​In light of the themes of resilience and perspective we’ve tracked, here is an exploration of what that figure sees from the edge:

​1. The Death of the “Label”

​In your poem, you mention: “Apples fell without labels / Without other purpose.” Looking out into that white space, the figure sees a world stripped of its marketing and its “re-runs.” They see things as they truly are, not as they are sold to us. It is a perspective where value isn’t assigned by a price tag or a “purpose,” but by the sheer fact of existence. To look into that space is to refuse to be a “second-hand wasting away.”

​2. The Mechanics of the “Change”

​The line “Its in the changing!” implies that the figure sees the world not as a solid, finished object, but as a fluid process. From the cliff, they can see that the wind—the very thing that makes the kite fly—is invisible. They are looking at the forces rather than the objects. They see that the pain of “no more” can be transformed into the “lost smile” if they simply adjust their grip.

​3. The Horizon of Forgiveness

​The white space is also the “light on a no slaving away day.” It is a canvas where “forgiveness helps the pain.” By looking away from the stack of skulls (the history of war and conflict) and toward the open air, the figure is choosing a perspective of peace. The kite is their anchor to this new world; as long as they hold the string, they are connected to that lightness.