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  • Ekphrasis at the Historical Society
  • Lesley Yalen (bio)

What We Know

  1. 1. “A black object absorbs all the colors of the visible spectrum and reflects none of them to the eyes.”

  2. 2. Negative space is where clues are buried: mouths and faces.

  3. 3. Gender is apparent.

  4. 4. Gender is deceiving.

  5. 5. None of my people had fingers so dainty.

  6. 6. None of our animals did tricks.

  7. 7. We’ve been here in weird ways since the beginning.

  8. 8. The one you most want to make love to is the chair.

  9. 9. People pose from a deep well of hope.

What We Don’t Know

  1. 1. What she is holding.

  2. 2. What we are looking at.

  3. 3. What we would have if an iPhone had been available.

  4. 4. What we wouldn’t.

  5. 5. Culture is apparent: a coiffed dog, a chair, a bonnet, tails.

  6. 6. Am I supposed to feel familial?

  7. 7. And yet I feel like I’ve been here before.

  8. 8. Was this image made by a Jew or owned by one?

  9. 9. What happened to it during the Civil War?

What We Assume

  1. 1. Archivists have reasons.

  2. 2. Jewish humor is as good as ever.

  3. 3. Jewish fear as formal.

  4. 4. To make shadows, you need a light source, and a reason.

  5. 5. It’s important to look at people posed, study mouths and faces.

  6. 6. This may be a fake, of total insignificance, tricky.

  7. 7. She is not at ease in her dress, nor is he in his body.

  8. 8. Everything has legs. The world is flat.

  9. 9. My people never go to Saratoga. [End Page 81]

Lesley Yalen

Lesley Yalen’s book, The Hearts of Vikings, was published by Natural History Press in 2015, and her chapbook, Partial List of Things I’m Responsible For, was published by above/ground press in 2016. Her poems have been published in jubilat, the Massachusetts Review, Hayden’s Ferry Review, and elsewhere.

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