Self-Portrait Without a Body
|
Volatile vesper flamed
to fallow the space between one I slash you and another. Come hither, nether. Sexual dark matter: neither nor nor or, either idea — or elemental et al. Object lesson in abstraction, seen best when un- seen. A question answered with a question — a phantom ache, instinctual stint. Can never leave because was no, is never. The periphery: capable incapability, a future perfect verb. Nerve now verve that urges the verge. Else or erst- while. A breath without lung. Open air. Still. |
|
Pica of Unsaid Things
Yes, I swallowed them.
Those bitter bolts rust in acidic
afterthought. This tetanus
of tautology turns my gut a copper
gangrene, a belfry
swallowed. Did you know passive
aggression is so soluble?
A soapy mouth learns other ways
to speak: homonymic hymns
of lye & lie. The awful offal
become my loden, stinking.
Anger uncomplicates. But I gulped
the wrong way. I am a glutton
for bile. I make drinking
songs of silence. Chugalug catgut.
& choke it back. Wolf
down this I can’t, I won’t —
this yes, yes, I mean, don’t.
Those bitter bolts rust in acidic
afterthought. This tetanus
of tautology turns my gut a copper
gangrene, a belfry
swallowed. Did you know passive
aggression is so soluble?
A soapy mouth learns other ways
to speak: homonymic hymns
of lye & lie. The awful offal
become my loden, stinking.
Anger uncomplicates. But I gulped
the wrong way. I am a glutton
for bile. I make drinking
songs of silence. Chugalug catgut.
& choke it back. Wolf
down this I can’t, I won’t —
this yes, yes, I mean, don’t.
Emilia Phillips is the author of two poetry collections from the University of Akron Press, Signaletics (2013) and Groundspeed (2016), and three chapbooks, most recently Beneath the Ice Fish Like Souls Look Alike (Bull City Press, 2015). Her poems and lyric essays appear in Agni, Boston Review, Gulf Coast, The Kenyon Review, New England Review, Ninth Letter, Ploughshares, Poem-a-Day, Poetry, Verse Daily, and elsewhere. She is the Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at Centenary University.
Ula Wiznerowicz (b. 1986) is a Polish documentary photographer currently based in Amsterdam. Her photographs have been exhibited widely with solo shows in Italy, England, and Poland. Working mainly within portraiture and social documentary photography, Wiznerowicz documents a particularly unique Polish/English perspective using the camera to explore narrative conventions with a powerful subtlety and poise. Her careful handling of subjects and their emotive stories has won her acclaim with most recently a Surrau Photo Win, shortlisted for the 2014 Daylight Photo Award, a Jurors Pick FotoVisura Grant, along with the Ideas Tap Portfolio Award in 2012, Channel 4/Saatchi Gallery Prize, and D&AD Best New Blood Prize in 2010. Wiznerowicz received a B.A. (Hons) Degree in Photography from Middlesex University (2010). A short documentary film about her work was made and aired by Channel 4.