- Ekphrasis at the Historical Society
What We Know
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1. “A black object absorbs all the colors of the visible spectrum and reflects none of them to the eyes.”
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2. Negative space is where clues are buried: mouths and faces.
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3. Gender is apparent.
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4. Gender is deceiving.
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5. None of my people had fingers so dainty.
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6. None of our animals did tricks.
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7. We’ve been here in weird ways since the beginning.
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8. The one you most want to make love to is the chair.
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9. People pose from a deep well of hope.
What We Don’t Know
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1. What she is holding.
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2. What we are looking at.
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3. What we would have if an iPhone had been available.
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4. What we wouldn’t.
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5. Culture is apparent: a coiffed dog, a chair, a bonnet, tails.
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6. Am I supposed to feel familial?
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7. And yet I feel like I’ve been here before.
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8. Was this image made by a Jew or owned by one?
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9. What happened to it during the Civil War?
What We Assume
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1. Archivists have reasons.
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2. Jewish humor is as good as ever.
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3. Jewish fear as formal.
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4. To make shadows, you need a light source, and a reason.
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5. It’s important to look at people posed, study mouths and faces.
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6. This may be a fake, of total insignificance, tricky.
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7. She is not at ease in her dress, nor is he in his body.
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8. Everything has legs. The world is flat.
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9. My people never go to Saratoga. [End Page 81]
Lesley Yalen’s book, The Hearts of Vikings, was published by Natural History Press in 2015, and her chapbook, Partial List of Things I’m Responsible For, was published by above/ground press in 2016. Her poems have been published in jubilat, the Massachusetts Review, Hayden’s Ferry Review, and elsewhere.