smoke and ice
Photo by Oksana Vasilieva on Unsplash A white tree in a California winter scarred with graffiti looks like a birch in the taiga which (I learned last year) is the part of Russia where no one can live, or no one wants to Look, I know nothing about Russia, but I'm learning how official stories are farcical but enforced by the state's jagged metal teeth and people vanish in the snow Yesterday I learned the man who shaves goat meat off a vertical spit on the busiest corner in my neighborhood was taken by ICE His absence is the absence of smoke while I wait at a red light (Look, I know nothing) and, for his family, a vertical spit piercing their hearts Masha from Pussy Riot charts a path through the snow for those of us who are learning: When they say you can't assemble send one activist at a time When you're locked up with your lover fuck her while you can Masha lives in Iceland now because bodies are not infinite but her love for the people of Russia is a steady global ...