for you a pair of broken angel wings
this image is copyrighted. do not reproduce without permission.

this is one instance where nothing i try does this image justice. for you a pair of broken angel wings is one of the pieces i am most proud of; the poem also, although there is most assuredly a disconnect between the image for this piece and the point of poem. the central image is actually a photo a friend sent a bunch of us by way of an e-mail of a single cherry blossom out his window. i really wanted to work with the photo, got his permission and about two months later, this is what emerged. there are seven pairs of images , in three columns, with the center column's pair being the same to its left and right, (to the left it has been desaturated; to the right it has been inverted). past/present/future... morning/noon/night... want/have/need... yesterday/today/tomorrow... before/during/after... memory/fact/revision... etc. seven pairs for seven days (a.m. and p.m.).

the image is really big. 3' X 4' the poem runs down the far-right side of the image, like a feather, like the greek myth, like sadness.

because i can't seem to get a good rendition of the whole piece here, below i have uploaded all seven pairs of the image that make up the whole. and, below, are two excerpts from my poem for you a pair of broken angel wings which is in, of, a part of and apart from the image...

(----)

When I wrestle control from my fears
That is when I succeed in redress
Your legacy still haunts me
Whereas I once had whole thoughts
I now cobble it all together in half-breaths,
These fragments only cohere because of commas and dashes.
Were my life spoken absent these I’d float
Float un-tethered I float broken. You stole wholeness,
You left me with my stuttering again intact.

(----)

If I could give you a gift my deepest hope would be this:
To be granted permission to hand to you in heaven
The wings that make you an angel
And as I hand them to you I break them,
Like you to me I snap their knuckles, like you to me limp
I’d make useless your wings, impotent and ugly
For you I would fashion a pair of broken angel wings
Unflinching I stand as you disappear out of my sight
Through clouds and wind and memory leaving me with silence.