The Mythopoetics of Desire | Virgil SuarezThe glow of a slicked surface of a black and white
photo, right where shadows hug the light, mark
those spots of otherworldliness, a scratch, a line
on a map. This uncharted territory in a life is called
forgetting, where the mind refuses to go, a corner
of the world in your childhood Havana, a big bus
in the background, towering into the horizon, some
giant monster, a whale, you’d think, like that one
that stole Ahab’s leg. In your hands crumbles time,
reflected light captured on paper, this wink of shutter,
a fixed smile, a boy in a sailor’s suit stands next
to his father, the policeman–who took the picture?
The mother? A shadow bent against the earth, cast
by the mid day sun? The name of this street
has long been forgotten, the people have died. Who calls
forth such memories in time? This is the lamp, here
the genie, one more stroke, you think, and the whole
thing will replay itself against the ravages of oblivion.
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