The Street Instructs the Eye

(An Exhibition: Photos by Jean-Luc Moulene - Dia Beacon 12/17/11)

Random snippets of detritus emerge from the cracks & gutters
of these Paris streets.
The Princess Tree blossoms & dies, marks time & place in passing.
The eye knows & the river
follows. There’s the tick tick tick of the town clock & a hand to
catch the feathers when
they fall. Here, even the pigeons prance & the dye is cast, here
he’s left a blue suitcase, a
banana peel, sparrows that peck at the stars, an apple rotting.
A dead squirrel rides a rush
of water from an open hydrant. The actors are nowhere to be
seen only evidence of their
passing: bricks & steel chains, mortars & a wire fence, balloons
adrift & a flowering pulse
where feet might be – busted boots & tourniquets. After the riots
a blend of tickertape &
bloody gloves, after nine years history mocks the rabbit trapped
in the eagle’s nest. Beside
the blue suitcase a pistol, a human tooth & a pair of red wool socks.






Click here to listen to Roger Aplon reading "The Street Instructs the Eye"






Roger Aplon was a founder and managing editor of Chicago’s CHOICE Magazine, along with John Logan and Aaron Siskind. He has published ten books, most recently The Man with his Back to The Room (poetry) and Intimacies (prose). Since returning in 2008 from a five-year writing retreat in Spain, he’s taught writing workshops independently and with the San Diego-based writing center, San Diego Writers INK. He now lives in Beacon, New York. He has been awarded various prizes and honors, including an arts fellowship from the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation in Taos, New Mexico. For additional information, visit: www.rogeraplon.com