Wednesday, November 25, 2009: The Library of Congress on Flickr (via the Flickr blog)

Perspective

Distance can be condensed,
compressed,

so that it lies flat as paper
on paper.

Gaping cathedrals, their ceilings
like flipped-

over, suspended pirate ships.
Sloping

hills and lonely orchards.
Stairwells

leading up or down,
the faint

edge of land across
the lake.

Immensities yield to the page,
clumsy

hands tacking them onto
horizon.

Monday, October 26, 2009: photo by Marcos Armstrong (via his Flickr)

Strange Design

Strange design has been applied
to this sheet metal. Water’s

drooled, dragging rusty stalactites,
brown daggers. Perforated

stencils—labels of ounces and pounds,
an emblem resembling a sheriff’s badge.

The most recent revision: seventeen
bullet holes, a constellation

of freckles, troublesome moles. We process
the punctures as polka dots, black

spots, dark drops of paint.
This metal is aging artfully,

unwittingly, thanks to the dusky
palette of decay, graffiti.

Wednesday, September 30, 2009: Flickr at the Getty Images Gallery, London (Peter Baker)

The Parking Lot

If it is tiered (think airport),
an endless spiral climb
and search in darkened
levels of numbered spots.

If it is level (think movie theatre),
an immense plain of blacktop
adhering to plowed earth underneath,
like newly-cooled lava.

Vehicles remain in their slots
marked with metal signs
delineating rows or colors.
The cars remain there,

a robot harvest in this urban
or suburban garden, and bark
once or twice to tell their owners
reassuringly, we are still here!