"La Condesa Sangrienta"

Apartment Building (1964-66) in Düsseldorf, Germany, by Walter Brune. Photo by Manfred Ehrich.

“The only thing that makes life possible is permanent, intolerable uncertainty: not knowing what comes next.”

Ursula K. Le Guin, The Left Hand Of Darkness

Lucien Hervé (László Elkán, dit) Unité d'habitation, Nantes-Rezé (Architecte : Le Corbusier)

Dancer dancing, Max Dupain, c. 1940

The legacies people leave behind in you.

My handwriting is the same style as the teacher’s who I had when I was nine. I’m now twenty one and he’s been dead eight years but my i’s still curve the same way as his.

I watched the last season of a TV show recently but I started it with my friend in high school. We haven’t spoken in four years.

I make lentil soup through the recipe my gran gave me.

I curl my hair the way my best friend showed me.

I learned to love books because my father loved them first.

How terrifying, how excruciatingly painful to acknowledge this. That I am a jigsaw puzzle of everyone I have briefly known and loved. I carry them on with me even if I don’t know it. How beautiful.

inspired by an illustration from a 1950 magazine

*** [we'll sit by the window...]

we'll sit by the window

we'll watch the storm coming

the darkest skies open

the strongest wind blowing

we'll see it take over

the world as we know it

we'll be left with nothing

but each other's hoping

for the days to come after

the days of redemption

to finally bring forth

our longed-for salvation

and yet we'll be crying

and yelling, denying

for no one has taught us

how to handle dying

i wish i could stop this

and hold you forever

but this very moment

is worth more than ever

we'll sit by the window

and watch the storm coming

once we had a future

soon we will be nothing

Arial B.

September 2023

naum gabo : klichee, 1924 / bauhaus bücher

To live in this world you must be able to do three things: to love what is mortal; to hold it against your bones knowing your own life depends on it; and, when the time comes to let it go, to let it go.

Mary Oliver, from "In Blackwater Woods" in American Primitive

revolutionary letter #26 by Diane Di Prima

Edit after George Ellery Hale (Rijksmuseum) (Ed. Lic.: CC BY-NC 3.0)