calibrating oblivion."
This one line is an apt description of life in the 21st century. To name just a few:
- the precipice of AI-overlords ruling the world
- so much refuse from the political disasters of the recent presidential eras that are remarkably unpresidential,
- figuring out my directions with 2 little ones who are so joyful and joy-inducing, and yet whose care is so all-encompassing and conflict-inducing
Fourth of July, 2012
I remember a performance
of Antigone in which she
threw herself on the floor of
the universe and picked up
a piece of dust. Is that
the particle? It startled me.
Was it Scripted? Directed?
Driven? I am a girl, Antigone.
I have a sister. We love
each other terribly. I am a woman
of property. The milk of the footlights.
The folds of the curtain. I remember
a performance of Antigone. She stooped.
There was a wild particle.
It was glorified by my distance.
I heard the hooves of the dust.
The ticking of the script
calibrating oblivion. I saw
the particle hanging
and Antigone needed something
to do with her hands
and she did it.
{by Robyn Schiff}
Copyright Credit: Robyn Schiff, "Fourth of July, 2012" from A Woman of Property. Copyright © 2016 by Robyn Schiff. Used by permission of Penguin Books, an imprint of Penguin Publshing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC.
Source: Poetry (December 2014)
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