just a soft film of you

“The frequency at which flicker becomes invisible is called the flicker fusion threshold, and is dependent on the level of illumination. Generally, the frame rate of 16 frames per second (frame/s) is regarded as the lowest frequency at which continuous motion is perceived by humans.

For silent films, 16 frame/s was dangerously inadvisable for projection, due to the high risk of the nitrate-base prints catching fire in the projector.

It is possible to view the black space between frames and the passing of the shutter by the following technique:

Close your eyelids, then periodically rapidly blink open and closed. If done fast enough you will be able to randomly “trap” the image between frames, or during shutter motion.”

//dust//

\swims\

l a n g u i d l y

through light scope

perched upon

window sills,

swallowing;

///////vanilla-clove’d licks//

//wind-kissed fingertips,

//erratic-static. ambivalence.

Piercing, p e r c o l a t i n g

the breath of your silent projection.

crystalized smoke curls,

your sigh

in each iridescent plume of distortion

underwater

undulations,

on our bed,

the one in the canopy tree,

nestled center-stage to backdrops of deep, lush, Africa

where leopards and Peter Pan clink dainty tea-

-cups

goldenocean-dipped, from brim to tiny handle, death and life was each sip;

high and safe from petty hands, grown-up talk in hidden

— Ma$queraDe gown$, safe

from

unseen charlatans

is where I found you,

.:.emancipation.:. in the slightest-lit alley

‘I’ve never felt this way

about anyone’

vinyl scratching

somewhere above us in suburban streetlights, where inertia dances, pushes us

closer

closer

closer; you can’t leave me, okay?

i s l o v e a n i l l u s i o n at 16 frames per second

because,

I stole.

your

seraphic image, the shadows.

the sweet redolence that evanesced. the trembling. the clavicle. the pelvis,

between | | |||| | | |||||||| ||| | | | | | still frames

I trapped it— f o r e v e r.

| | | | | ||| ||||||||| | | |||| | |

after your beauty

fell

in

front of

me

like

a

prayer

falls

from my lost

mother’s

lips.