Primer #5 of Underground Echoes – the first grip on the rope. A reflection on clumsy beginnings, self-rescue, and the tension required to move. Paired with a pen-and-ink drawing of a prusik hitch: slow, imperfect, but still holding.
In Case of Emergency?
Or Inefficient Cope & Escape?
Either way: tension and friction.
The prusik isn’t elegant.
It’s what you grab
when things go sideways.
A clumsy little hitch
that grips the rope
just tight enough to hold,
and maybe, just maybe,
get you climbing again.
It’s slow. Awkward.
Powered by hope and swearing.
It works…
if you remember what holds.
A few inches at a time.
Shedding fibers along the way.
I’m drawing this
one dot at a time.
A few inches per session.
Like climbing the rope,
but quieter.
No panic.
Just presence.
A mirror to the first chapter.
To cliff edges and parachutes.
To the moments we all try
before we know better.
Dot Dot Line. Dot.
.. -.-. .
Micron on Bristol
Featured in Chapter 1: The Smoke
Underground Echoes: Book 1 of the Safe Exposure Series
Text-only Field Edition (ebook)
February 2026: Illustrated Print Edition
Reflections, images, and early glimpses of what’s next.