2: Violence

Written on July 1, 2017. “Violence” is the second part in a series of eight. All images in the sequence originally captured at Yosemite National Park.

it reaches
for it
for all

augmented
trapped
beneath
concrete
and wire

mercy

memory
it comes
like light
doesn’t wait
for sleep

while we sit
while we think
I . . .

for you
for your heart

rising
the foretold
impressions
a language
repeating
itself

flailing

later then
weighted
building
skeletons
out of others
the other
skeletons

binding
bound
chains
chained
I . . .

for me
for my days

skinless and
less soft
than memory
flayed

animations
fractured

turning of ritual
envisioning clearings

bloodless

cleared
covered
in ash
a murder
through lash

intruders

voices lean
toward nothing
but
and
for
one
halt
I . . .

for us
for our smoke

the ideas
all of them
evaporate

irradiation

the idea
of a self
mutated

barricades
down again
stay away

mouth
mind
no longer
casual
reliable