All Tears Fall Here or
How the Creatures Got Their Light

2009, acrylic and ink on hemp linen; 6 X 7 feet

And the system's mythology requires only the not-yet-real, the virtual, the next purchase. This produces in the spectator, not, as claimed, a sense of freedom (the so-called freedom of choice) but a profound isolation.—John Berger

On their pillar
of profound isolation
each Consumer
proceeds to dive
to die
desperate for relief
they plunge into the mess one by one
as tears fall
past submerged boxes, batteries, parts, plastic,
metal, pots, cradles, handles, buttons, cords, crap
into a shadowy rapid
an undersea river
of tears and trash.

All tears fall here
angry, bereft
dropping down heavy
into the abyss
schooling like fish
darting in and out
of a post-industrial
deep water dump.

Still
they hold to their dives
beyond wasted life
hearts burst
until reaching the sunken treasure
thrown down by lovers, children—
they become
hope glimmering inside bodies
coming to light
behind each cell
in an underground cosmos.

Beloved, this is the story of bioluminescence
in creatures of the deep
the story of change and
the miracle of original light
the story of the god in the body
the great shining
from within
without
the story
of the
Divers.

06.12.05