Louis Stettner, Les Alpilles No. 20, 2014 (Website)
Black and white photography, 30 x 40 cm
©The Estate of Louis Stettner, 2019
Here are the woods where grow ivy & snakeroot.
Here are the woods where grows your mother’s house
after she lost it to the bank: the sunlight-hole
where the chimney once stood, the swarm
of butterflies and lighter-fluid fumes.
The door you stood at, waiting for her to unlock it
and let you back in. Tell how you remember it:
it was mischief night. You had the head of a dead
man weighting your canvas pack. Here are the woods
you walked through, hearing him on your back,
singing in a forgotten language.
It was mischief night. The ivy practiced
catching fire. Tell how to transform like that:
by root & fume & whatever tongues you carry.