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.