Walking the shore road making my way along the water I keep thinking of the ways
An aperture opens to the light even as day darkens—
These days I carry only what I can touch & touch only what brings me focus
I mean interior focus an old shadow-&-wick sense & I’ve
Brought those photographs you’d asked for so you’ll explain just what you meant
One night you told me a way to see is a way to live
Everything in me looks to believe you as I hold myself against the body
Equivalent to the world’s body even as your breath exhales
Across the sky like a negative held up against the gathering music of clouds
Scored to bring the figure of the figure back to the natural world
Until dust & lacunae arise as you lift your Rollei to sweep the cirrus the way Debussy
Set in motion the cursive whispers of the sky a graphic white on white
Over a script of black tapestries hung across this hypnotic translucence—strips of old negatives strewn
Across the sloping studio floor their ghostly shapes held in a sequence
Of frames no longer lit by fire & I’m exactly who I say I am tonight just an image
Of a last reflection fading slowly as summer light before your eyes