“Sacrifice time, how to,” 4/15 from 21st Century Retablo. 11.7″ x 16,” mixed-media on archival paper, 2005-06. Permanent collection, USC Fisher Museum of Art.

POEM: sacrifice time, how to

the evidence points to critical failures     the need for repair/
“purchase present truth, experience the future now”     just then/
a flash of memory     we are all made of dark matter     in this photograph,/
you stand in a field of landmines     loss is/

inherent in the process     to illustrate statistics, soldiers/
wear the sins of the enemy     skins,/
tanned, cover the books of celestial empire     witness/
the end of history     three easy, monthly payments     “prophecies/

made of bird bones are increasingly unreliable”     suggests conspiracy/
still, the mother is lost     we search for omens in the nonsense/
sounds of satellites     wounds instead in the hollow nests, carcasses of the dead/
found in empty branches     I am/

an unreliable witness     it is difficult to live/
in the time of confluence, when pressure exceeds all meaning/
how we hoped for symmetry     you understand/
the true properties of X:/

“sacrifice is found in the infinite/
extension between stars, the shadows cast by dead light”