Squares

Similar to the other piece I have involving a white square and a black square — this one feels a bit more personal, and there is more of myself in these shapes.

black square on white

My generation is made up entirely of pixels.

Tiny squares of varying intensities

which together, and only together,

have clarity.

 

Here is one black square suspended before

a white background. Somewhere there is an old

family photo – Pixel sits on Malevich’s shoulders,

blinking vacantly through trifocals.

 

A rift in the sheet, a rip in the neat.

Dimensions stutter and start counting heads,

and the context alone is enough to stifle

the desire to understand. Slipping slow

and timeless through that static canvas,

I resent my own hands as they

pull me back.


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white square on black

I resent the longing that threads itself

through the atoms of my eyes when I stare

at a white square on black. Instinct forces me

to squeeze my sloppy frame through

that dying window in the dark.

I resent the lack of control I have over

that human knack for feeling

significant, though even this simple

shape remains wrapped around me long

after I leave it.