Perpetuity

What did Perpetuity inspire?

noun; meaning "endless duration,
uninterrupted existence."

Joelle Saveliev

Noël Coleman

Joelle Saveliev

Oh let me ponder,
In perpetuity,
The ways in which,
To dispose,
Of a corpse. 
Cement,
Or sandbags,
Such incongruity,
To dig a deep ditch,
Or use knives,
and forks.

Noël Coleman

The perpetuity of the picture is in the death of the moment

it’s an action of freezing and pressing and capturing

there’s a way of making the now become the always

that kills faster than a sharp knife against thin skin

and it’s something like becoming aware

like when you look too long in the mirror

realizing you are more than the body reflected

and suddenly, the body is desensitized.

the perpetuity of all things is what kills them

“hey, remember that time when…”

and suddenly the moment is back, frozen.

I remember when my bathroom sink exploded

and water went everywhere even as

my hands turned red from holding the cold flow back

my eyes turned black from feeling the pressure fight

it was a moment, an experience uncaptured

and that meant it could change.

every recall can be from a different angle,

a new fact, whether actual or misremembered, can be introduced

in 5 years, I might forget that it was my left eye

I might forget that it was 25 minutes

before we found the shutoff

I might forget how I used all the towels sopping up the floor

not to saving one for myself, standing drenched and cold

or I might have

before I wrote this down, capturing it

each click of the keyboard \a reflection \against the snap of the picture

killing it slowly, freezing it and keeping it

never to change

slowly; but killing it all the same.