THE PORTRAIT
Framing perspective such that the brain does not become confused, the
depth just trickery but enough for discussion, for proxy, for progress. The
frame, heavy in inception, thins over time, finally disappears replaced by
full-bleed. In digital and print. There is still potential for confusion, we just
no longer care, welcome the mismatch, the brain registering depth where
there is none.
What’s the difference between a flat image depicting depth and depth itself
if the viewer will never travel toward it. Knock knock. Empiricism. You will
close your eyes and I am you today. I will close my eyes and step back and
turn. I will watch the blood move across my eyelids, facing a bright window,
and know that it is yours. The blood. A fiberoptic crepe between us.
This frame enclosing not a landscape but an image of the landscape as
appears from inside. The city shimmers today past the sill and aftermath.
Wiry streaks of light and lighter smudges carry across, more a field of
orange plaster, my wall. To travel toward, dearth of faith in representation,
doing the work for us.
biography
Originally from the Hudson Valley in New York, THEA BROWN is the author of the chapbook We Are Fantastic (Petri Press, 2013) and the full-length collections Think of the Danger (H_NGM_N, 2016) and Famous Times (Slope Editions, 2019). Recent or forthcoming work can be found in the Iowa Review, Lit Hub, Vinyl, and elsewhere. She lives in Baltimore.