WEBVTT

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"Review."

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These people in the photo
of the war and their babies

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look like dirt
and rags and dirt.

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All fell but
especially the babies,

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who fell into the earth
the way they had always

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fallen into
shoulders, into sleep,

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with small, complete weight.

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You understand that
the bodies are dead

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because of the angles
elucidated by the photograph.

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You are not convinced
that the stillness is not

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the stillness of a photograph.

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As the photo
suggests, you conflate

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what is rag, what is
dirt, what is body.

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You put yourself in
there, even in babies,

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and the angles your body
can't do, even with yoga.

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The other reason you
know they're dead

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is it says as much on the little
card next to the photograph.

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You have come to an
exhibit of photographs that

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has been praised for breathing.

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The reviewer stopped short of
announcing that the pictures

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make the war come to life.

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He composed the
review after visiting

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an ex-lover in the hospital,
a sculptor who, quote,

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"remained in a
vegetative state."

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In the hospital, he
tried to concentrate

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on the sheet veiling her and
not the memory of her body.

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She had been a sculptor on her
way to revitalizing classicism.

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They lived in an apartment
with her resin figures.

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He had been a
photographer losing faith

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in his own artistic promise.

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Her stillness was hard to take.

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He remembered the
camera he loved,

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a Nikon he'd saved
up for in 1965

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and still brought out sometimes,
usually alone in his apartment,

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usually after several drinks.

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Once, he'd found a
mysterious roll of film

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among the pieces of fruit
in a bowl on his countertop

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and had it developed.

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On it, objects in his life
had been rendered monumental.

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He had not had children.

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He had not gone to war.

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He had not made
good art, but when

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he looked at the
photograph of his kettle,

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he found it
difficult to breathe.

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