Status Updates From 2666

‘Bright colours in the west, giant butterflies dancing as night crept—toward the east. The discovery was made by Santiago Catalán—dogs began to quiver as if they’d scented a tiger or a bear. But since there are no tigers or bears around here I got it in my head that they’d scented the ghost of a tiger or a bear—cholla and biznaga cactuses—in the distance a saguaro—spectrum of yellows, one shading into another.’