Mimesis: the deliberate imitation of the behavior of one group of people by another as a factor in social change.*
Somewhere, someone knows these colors to be home. Not only the sandy complexion of the boots, but the laces slipping and sliding into loops and over soft tongues and slowly pulling, constricting, suffocating. Even its shape— the shallow curve of a man’s ankle, the slow descent to the tips of his toes— these are the sandy silhouettes and generous hills recalled from their youth.
Someone, somewhere admires jagged peaks of pale crested mountains. The same jagged peaks they have seen rising and breaking in the wrinkles of loose fitting fatigues, and complimented by vests, spotted with the gentle green pastures once ruled by their jidd’s sheep.
There are chains of mountains as wide as chests under Mandarin collars and just as full of pockets and pouches as military issued BDU’s—
but this is cheap imitation. It is a failed mimesis.