Author Archives: georgelstein

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reflecting absence

 

Image

 

Reflecting Absence
 
 
 
Passing from anticipation to boredom to fascination
 
working from awkwardness and positioning accordingly
 
the art in reflecting absence, in going where you’ve never been
 
where no one has. suicide is generally good for sales
 
but everyone knows that’s not why she left
 
 
 
the technique works because we seek out the one flaw
 
in a sea of otherwise perfection. capturing life in frozen stillness
 
stand transfixed in the process until completed
 
A freak stops you and asks you a riddle
 
as you float like a spirit through this dream-nightmare
 
 
 
we lose sleep fretting about the horror
 
but the freak has already faced his
 
carries the airs of an aristocrat
 
madness and genius know, get just the same
 
no one else comprehends the language you speak
 
 
 
what will be left when everything is stripped away
 
what is absorbed when you aren’t looking. it is
 
what seeps through walls and pores and consciousness 
 
stare into the lens. It is Everything. I’ve seen so much
 
the only thing I really know is that I don’t know
 
 

a tribute to diane arbus

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Barbie I

Barbie I

This is a re-edited photo from the parody nude Barbie calendar by Buenos Aires-based artists Breno Costa and Guilherme Souza and is protected expression under the US Bill of Rights

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barbie II

barbie II

This is a re-edited photo from the parody nude Barbie calendar by Buenos Aires-based artists Breno Costa and Guilherme Souza and is protected expression under the US Bill of Rights

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astray

astray (draft)

  – george l stein

 

Astray

the dream is premised with an unrequited desire and, light as a feather, floats ever higher
and for a time, favorable winds and ethereal grace are enough
carefree, it navigates shoals and obstacles as if guided by some benevolent, invisible hand
is advanced by a false premise or two, when things begin to get tough
and when the first leap of faith comes up short; trip, stumble, and fall. Now stand
and awaken

the sun is the same in a relative way, but your older
suffer oppressing heat of a deceiving sky
a quiet, backward place between cities of some wealth and substance
night follows day for a vessel that refuses to die
bodies circling bodies pulling bodies still persisting in motion
you know I was willing to share but that wasn’t enough
the infinite pull of blood, loss, regret and sorrow
water gurgles, frogs gasp for air from the trough

after aphelion, summer waxes and begins to fold endlessly into itself,
you take refuge deep inside, day after night, and page after page
vines and snakes become ensnared, twisted and inseparable
headlights race past, chartreuse fireflies light and burn
by degrees, the house disappears under verdant entanglement

full moon in perigee, just after equinox,
the chimes toll absolute midnight
the earth traces the edge around the sun, a collar of apsis
another solstice, nearer in place, but still so far apart, celestial plight
bodies orbiting other bodies in an ordered chaos

the kids run haphazard ’round a last fall bonfire of dead twigs, broken dreams, leaves
pour more gasoline on the pyre until she is helplessly engulfed
arms aflame, extending upward, red sparks race into the sky and dissipate
she cries out but there is only the rush of dry wind in her lungs
her bones were primed but her soul still too wet to immolate
unfinished business, children to be fed,
papers to be filed, planets to be led
astray