Camera Obscura

Camera Obscura
( a darkened box-like device in which images of external objects, received through an aperture, as with a convex lens, are exhibited in their natural colors on a surface arranged to receive them; used in sketching and exhibition purposes---random house dictionary definition)

The white plaster walls swell and contract
Moving in time with the clicking
And clack and flickering of the grainy
Yellow film, running along the far wall…
Super 8 projector
Buzzing
Humming
Hot air blowing back
Showing blurred half-faced phantoms
Rail thin figures quickly running by…
Outside the window the snow falls.
Inside the walls so clean…so stark
Throwing the orbs to the ground
Making a spark
From the spark, I make fire
From fire, I make smoke
From the smoke, I make a veil
Obscured
Hiding behind the veil
The magic, the smoke and the fire, the crumbled and torn little pieces
the ripped out pages
From the old books
The strangers on film
Humming along.
A red haired girl with a white t-shirt
t-shirt with a sticky shiny picture of Elvis
Skull and bones tattoo
Hammer and sickle
Soviet star
Tattoos running up and down
The length of her arm
A young man sitting on a roof
Smoldering things glowing in his hands
Burned clothes…little burned holes
Throwing the orbs to the ground
Making a spark
From the spark, I make fire
From fire, I make smoke
From the smoke, I make a veil
Obscured
Hiding behind the veil.
Perspective
Camera Obscura
I collect the moments.