Saturday, April 2, 2011

helen tsiriotakis: shadow hand

Another girl who presents herself as a memory.
One more shape of memory.

The girl approaches the wall, casting a shadow. With chalk she traces her own image, diving down the cliff neck, climbing a hill shoulder, following the length of a long torso. To maintain the shape, she knows she must keep still. She must also keep the distance. If she pinpoints the light, chalkdust draws out her obscurity, radiating messy confessions: under prescriptive scrutiny, she blurs the look of the lens. When she’s too far, lifelines withdraw. She associates with the tip of any diversion. She stands this way for hours, outlining the memory of her body. Until she reaches the part of the wall where her hand collides with the shadow’s hand. No matter the impression she leaves, she confronts her own solitude. Her chalk can’t embody the hand that holds it. This is her alternate route: placing the chalk in her left hand, her right hand leaning against the wall.

Her right hand leaning against the wall.


Tsiriotakis, Helen. "Shadow Hand" Introductions: Poets Present Poets. Markham: Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 2001.