Duffield & Ostrowski – February 2019

Nicole Ostrowski and E. N. Duffield traded art and words. Nicole shared this image, titled “Excelancholy,” with E.N.:

In response, E.N. wrote this poem:

Cathedral

repetition recurrence

in and in and in and out of consciousness
time doesn’t bend
but it breaks

in half
in half
in half

it overlaps

the mechanical tap-tap-tap of keyboard keys
each piece a thread in a tapestry
a gear in a machine

at least that’s what I’ll tell myself
staring into a blue screen
absent in body
tired in mind

only awake when it is still too early
for the sun to rise

perched like
a gargoyle at the edge
of time and life

have you ever been to a cathedral?
when I looked at the stained glass windows

that glowing blue magnificence
everything fit together, perfectly
filled with light

and I could think only
of how that blue made my skin look

just the way it usually does,
like it is inorganic,
plastic

not alive.

* * * * *

E.N. shared this poem with Nicole:

Spectre


I am holy dust
a remnant of former power
the spectre of a god

I am the wakeling in your dreamer’s state
the footsteps following your wandering in the dark

I carry memories of days that have not yet passed
dimensional jackal
bastard of a world that has long since passed

They still watch
my late lovers, betrayers,
the cast-off creators

they watch from dark shadows
dying in the light

my friends… family
they watch me
dying in the daylight

I can almost feel them smiling.

In response, Nicole made this image, titled “Observation”: