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At work

"Ying Ang on assignment" © Talia Herman

"Talia Herman on assignment" © Ying Ang

Assigned

On the road, on assignment.

Across 2 icy states in one sepia toned night, NY – NJ – PA – NY.

Caught unawares

I wasn’t ready for you

caught unawares

at the way

you rubbed me down

with your stare

A big starving thing

“Do you have any pets? He asked.

No.

Not even a cat?

No.

Why not?

I’m not sure I could care for a pet. I travel a lot.

But you could get a very little pet that wasn’t very hungry.

I knew all about those things that weren’t very hungry;

My life was full of them. I didn’t want any more weaklings who were activated by water and heat but had no waste and were so small that when they died, I buried them only with forgetfulness. If I was going to bring something new into my home, it would be a big starving thing.”

~ Miranda July from “The Boy from Lam Kien”

Oblivion

Retarded Artifact

Give me reasons not to be
oblivion, irony.
Like something in Wisconsin,
I am all the dirt I know.
Having come to in someone
else’s boredom, I’m alive—
and it’s an all-new boredom,
a boredom of cathedral
proportion. Empty as folk,
I just make up, make over
everything. Lately, I don’t
even want a piece of me.

~ Graham Foust

Crush

Scheherazade

Tell me about the dream where we pull the bodies out of the lake
and dress them warm in clothes again.
How it was too late, and no one could sleep, the horses running
until they forget that they are horses.
It’s not like a tree where the roots have to end somewhere,
it’s more like a song on a policeman’s radio,
how we rolled up the carpet so we could dance, and the days
were bright red, and every time we kissed there was another apple
to slice into pieces.
Look at the light through the windowpane. That means it’s noon, that means
we’re inconsolable.
Tell me how all this, and love too, will ruin us.
There, our bodies, possessed by light.
Tell me we’ll never get used to it.

~ Richard Siken from the book “Crush”

Writing on the wall

So in the Book of Daniel, ghostly fingers inscribe warnings on the wall of King Belshazzar’s palace. Daniel is summoned to translate and delivers the death of Babylon.

“God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end, you have been weighed on the scales and found wanting…”

Let’s hope that the omen implies the death of winter. Bring me the spring!

A Beacon

I am cold and lasted a matter of weeks in the city. The roar of Manhattan’s whirlwind forced me out of town and I found myself on a train, headed here for the day.

Beacon, NY

Adam lies on my couch

and allows me to photograph him with a 4 x 5 view camera.

Patiently… and with the same look in his eyes that has followed me for 15 years. I am back in New York and it is great to see him.