(xn = xn-1 + xn-2)*
*The Fibonacci Tree

Kaitlin Moore

Given x12 = In the back of the abandoned station is the hydroculture laboratory, a long, narrow room filled with rows of hydroponics tanks; behind the thick, opaque glass, the white roots twist and curl through mineral nutrient solutions; the station grows legumes: soybeans and kidney beans, lentils and alfalfa, peas, lima beans, entwined in a tangle of knotted vines that grow above and over the rim of the tanks––boughs and thick, fleshy stalks brush the ceiling, covering the skylight and the walls like the archways of a great green cathedral = x11 + x10 

where x11 = There are solar panels on the roof and geothermic vents under the grated floor, running heat up from the perpetual fires burning at the center of the world; even though the sky is dark and the sun is far and faint, the hydroculture laboratory is always warm and the air is kept heavy and damp

and x10 = Everything smells of moisture and green, growing things––the lima beans’ stalks are as thick as small trees, their seed pods dangling from bent and breaking boughs, silky folds bejeweled in beads of dew = x9 + x8

where x9 = And we stand under the canopy of vines, looking into the ceiling of lentils and lima beans, swollen like fly eggs and x8 = We trace the curves of intestinal roots, the feelers pushing against the glass

∴  x8 = x7 + x6 where x7 = We wonder if they prefer the darker world

and x6 = If they escaped the ghosts

and x5 = x4 + x3 → Choked the silence = Broke through + Into

∴  x2 = x1 + x0 →

The = …… + ……

Bio
Kaitlin Moore is a sophomore at the University of Pennsylvania studying Creative Writing and Philosophy of Science. Once an astrophysics major, Kaitlin likes to write stories that experiment with time, space, and superpositive cats that are both alive and dead. Kaitlin is the author of two novels and several short stories and essays. Her work has appeared in 3Elements Review, Filament, Tinge Magazine, and Blue Door Quarterly.