december 1

ode to the u penn darkroom

in an eternal dusk
i figit and focus with
black knobbed apparati
to make copy on copy
of a small frame of my world.

i look down at my hands
with extrawide pupils
and what i see is all
photo gray and oddly moving
like i've been bleached in developer.

in the swirling bath of water
are faces of people who 
have probably never met
mingling and sticking to one another
like a cocktail party of our imaginations.

this is so much nicer
than the little fifth-floor place
where my lonely images dry slowly
and i can't even really see my fingers
because you don't need much light when you're alone.

11.22 | december | 12.03