fresh from my mouse - good things...book

there were two photo collage pieces realized to accompany a poem by michael sarnowski (below) for inclusion in a new book published by write bloody & ISM called "The Good Things About America" (out soon).
first, is the full-color version titled "locationally affectionate".
second is the final grayscale version titled "_at ends.for you_".
enjoy.















Michael Sarnowski
The Geography of Love in America

1. Northern Girls
love like a thawing glacier. They exhale fog
to match the tremolo of your shivers. Each moves
like wind off water, a lake effect sweep to leave you numb.
You will find comfort in the snow day of their arms.
You will lose control like their bodies are black ice
on familiar roads. They are danger and permanence,
reassured. It’s the road salt rusted metal frailty
you hear in every refrain. It’s the receding ice ages
you can taste in every kiss. It’s the promise
that the four valves of their hearts,
in decrescendo every winter, will churn like cylinders
to meet you when the seasons are ready to shift.

2. Southern Girls
speak like slide guitars, necks warped
by the sun’s slow burn. These are love song girls,
daughters of dumbstruck heartbreak. They sing, sing, sing
until their braided nickel strings saturate in distortion.
Each smile rises like a wave of heat from the streets.
They are lightning bugs that set the evening on fire,
bring their warmth in from the tree line, flutter
from broken boughs to panes of glass. They are tradition
revised, a history of lives patient as the search teams
that wake at dawn, to begin at the banks
and drag the river. To sift through miles of silt
for any sign of love left in the riverbed.