Wednesday, April 24, 2019

THE LIGHT PRESERVED IN THE INSTALLATION

for Ilya and Emilia Kabakov

there will be light
coming from no direction
not even from the sun

or the midnight one

preserved in the installation
who can say
by what method

snow is falling outside
the temporary windows

by no method at all
a single light bulb
and white rainbows

flooding the scene
you think you remember
though you are not

from that country
but suddenly
the names of all lost things

are calling 
your name
as you stand there

as they did once
in school or sainthood,
taking attendance

the soft light diffusing
what you knew
of yourself

flown into an expansive space
with your half wing fluttering

where have you come from
they ask you in the corridors
as if they knew themselves

the children whispering,

the answer that is floating away.

and are just testing out
on you, the nonenity,
a potential new play.

your insistence on the colour of summers then.

mary angela douglas 24 april 2019

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