Presence: A Collaboration

Presence

photography by Scott LaForce
text by mel kozakiewicz

The cornfield is dark. I create a connection with a being whose language I do not speak.

No entiendo. Tenderness. His shadow stands alone, as if I have entered him. He is a fantasy of a man, or I am. My crutches stand without support, embodied by spirits translated long ago by Ngozi and Keisha.

Today the tree survives only under foot, but the shadow of its former vibrance refuses to submit. Refuses death. Far from our body there is an abundance of hidden faces, each studying our gesture of silence. The focus is on the scarcity. On the light.

We come across a refridgerator, where we commence our dance. He removes the doors and props them up against its shoulders, dressing it. He is proud of the space he has altered. I say mire esto but he monopolizes our mouth. I approach the piece of paper which diagrams the inner workings of the subject but he adjusts the shelves, caresses their edge.

We move through wet grass. The light is permanent. We evade its weight. My comfort grows in the impossibility of our union, my corporeal disappearance.

The cows startle me. I cower inside his breath. Lights interrogate his intentions, but he is confident. He asks where I have gone. He cannot find me amidst the cows. The energies have muddled. The pungence in his nose empowers me to occupy his throat. He gags. The walls volley the sound like a ball.

I do not know how long I will rest inside him. He scratches at our feet. The hay is sharp. What restrains the cows? Is there contentment?