The ‘state of emergency’ in which we live is not the exception but the rule.
—Walter Benjamin
In this metaphor, I am the box
of emptiness, and the window
is the lens that frames the setting
of the sun, the blur of the land.
A state of emergence is always
rising from under the surface
of the earth, always born from a place
of shadows. Everywhere, a catastrophe
is possible: yes, Girona, now home
to gourmet ice cream and medieval sets
for a famous television show,
but also home to the locked door
of the Jewish ghetto. The granaries
are golden in the light, and sparrows
rise on the wind and nearly sublimate
themselves, but the old flag
marks the spot where the shrapnel
gutted the plaza. In almost complete
darkness, the fig trees thrive,
and the coast waves like the hem
of a dress, but one cannot forget
the days of hunger that linger here.
When I arrive in the city of lost boats,
I’ll walk through the chamber of night
and remember that this was the day
I came to believe in the sentience
of mountains. Metaphor, ancient word,
means to carry change. May the mountains
carry a change in me; may this
be the beginning of my journey.
[Note: The epigraph comes from “Theses on the Philosophy of History” in Illuminations, ed. Hannah Arendt (Schocken, 1955), p. 257.]
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Jason Reblando is an artist and photographer whose work is in the collections of the Library of Congress, the Milwaukee Art Museum, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. His monograph, New Deal Utopias (Kehrer Verlag) was published in 2017. He teaches photography at Illinois State University.
Joanne Diaz is the author of two poetry collections, The Lessons and My Favorite Tyrants. She is the recipient of fellowships from the Illinois Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts. She teaches literature and creative writing at Illinois Wesleyan University.