Fieldwork
Excerpted from FIELDWORK. Published in GUERNICA, Spring 2015
O ONE O
When we do our fieldwork near the safe house we start by collecting. It’s a simple matter: kick a little dirt and something will shake loose. Tag it. Put it in a bag. Do it again. When the bag is full, send it to the morgue.
Sit down. Take a break. Eat a peach. We always have a few around. Someone figured out how to make them: you start with a seed.
It’s a way of touching flesh with a finger, of feeling your finger poke through. Bruises. And those small hairs, the delicate ones, and the dust that’s settled over them. Particulate. A stone lies in the center of a peach. Weighs it down. Otherwise, it might rise up, instead of falling. The heaviness is necessary.
O TWO O
The girls’ bodies in the ravines. The mouth of the earth, filled with strange fruit.
Published in Guernica Magazine
Credits
FIELDWORK is a suite from OUT HERE DEATH IS NO BIG DEAL.
The suite of images and texts have been exhibited at the Robert Feldman Gallery / NYC, and published in Guernica.
The project is supported by Creative Capital, the Theo Westenberger Foundation, the Corporation of Yaddo, and Millay Colony.