Different faces, formats all the same:
A profile set beside a frontal view
And nothing else included in the frame
Save, at the bottom, for a coded row
Of numbers dashes letters that replaces
A name best left un-said by those who knew it.
Two aspects of one face there, not two faces.
Behind each is a blank wall, we intuit,
More like an edge each one could be tipped over,
Once photographed. Impossible to read
These inex-pressive faces and recover
The thoughts of those who have been so long dead,
Who died, in fact, before the photographer
Had time to fix them in his clear solu-tion.
Although their eyes meet ours now, we are
Still not there yet: no stay of execution.
n
Dear Reader,
Can I be direct with you?
War abroad. Socialists on the rise. AI upending human life. Endless uproar online. The modern attention economy doesn’t want readers — it wants users enslaved to the tyranny of the present.
First Things is the antidote: literary excellence, timeless truths, and a fixed point of reference in a culture that has lost its bearings.
But we can’t do it without readers like you.
Our goal: Raise $150,000 by November 1 to sustain First Things in the year ahead.
Your gift anchors readers in the permanent things.
Make your Fall Campaign gift now using the button below.
If you have any questions or would like more information, please contact Giovanni Del Piero, Director of the Editor’s Circle, at gdelpiero@firstthings.com or 212-627-1985.
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE
A Muslim Answer to Muslim Immigration
Modern America worships at the altar of youth and eagerly tracks in polls and market research its…
New Founders Wanted
It’s now 250 years since America declared her independence and embarked on the experiment of fashioning a…
Forget Odysseus. Aeneas Is the True American Hero.
Who is our Odysseus? Or more precisely, who is the most Odyssean hero of American film? Matt…
