Saul Bass, graphic designer
We use death because it contains
all life the way we use black
for all colors, & light.
&c. for all words & allegory
for meaning. Meaning for all
people is not the same. We take
people for individuals. An
individual for one. & one
because all numbers go on
their daily tasks
with it in their chests
like a rib, almost unaware
of it in their solitude.
Solitude for its tin-can
telephone that leads from
the mouth to the empty
ear. & emptiness
which holds nothing.
& nothing for the way it dances
without a partner
or rank toward oblivion
which takes
us in & yet does not
grow any larger. We don’t,
in the end, have to make
these figures whole.
A rule: See a hand,
assume a body;
see an eye, expect a
soul.
EMILIA PHILLIPS is the author of Signaletics (University of Akron Press, 2013) and two chapbooks including Bestiary of Gall (Sundress Publications, 2013). Her poetry appears in AGNI, Beloit Poetry Journal, Green Mountains Review, Gulf Coast, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Indiana Review, The Journal, The Kenyon Review, Narrative, The Paris-American, Third Coast, and elsewhere. She’s the recipient of the 2012 Poetry Prize from The Journal, selected by G.C. Waldrep; 2nd Place in Narrative’s 2012 30 Below Contest; and fellowships from Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, U.S. Poets in Mexico, Vermont Studio Center, and Virginia Commonwealth University where she received her MFA in poetry in 2012. She serves as the prose editor for 32 Poems and has been appointed as the 2013–2014 Emerging Writer Lecturer at Gettysburg College.
Latest posts by Emilia Phillips (see all)
- Groundspeed - December 27, 2014
- Why Write? #16: Emilia Phillips - May 23, 2013
- IV. Bass Macabre - March 14, 2013
