Commonplace Object Study #3

I had depressed the shutter, opened the aperture,

Admitted light and left it there for an hour,

Determined to scrutinise inherited objects

In a mid-terrace Victorian house.

 

 

 

 

I uploaded the file and sat, ready to check my

Armchair study of the sofa.

 

 

 

 

There were two figures present.

 

 

 

 

One looked out from the pit of her darkened eyes,

Reclining, with head resting on hand, relaxed

But absent. Her form shook the surrounding air.

 

 

 

 

The other had taken two poses.

 

 

 

 

One, conversational, flesh-faced, looked at her,

His eyes creased by the vines of a leftover smile,

Calm in her company and deep in admiration.

 

 

 

 

The second turned to look at me;

He pervaded each pixel on my screen.

His skin melted and left a hollow skull

Whose eye sockets’ infinite depth

Screamed at me, the guilty intruder,

Who’d transposed them from home.

He had consumed the gap between it

And the sensor - stirred to revenge -

Ready to reach for my chest, touch

My arteries and force them to drive ice

Round my body, choking the spark

That had abandoned them early.

 

 

 

 

I looked back and her pose had turned tense.

She looked out, desperate for pity,

Wishing I’d abandoned my study.

They fixed me on my desk,

Determined to punish my discovery.

 

 

 

 

The power cut left me in darkness,

Accompanied by the companions of

Commonplace objects.

 

--

 

Henry Bew, 2012.

Done