The Twentieth Century in Photographs

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

Next
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE

Trump for Women

Carrie Sheffield

On Wednesday, President Trump signed an executive order titled “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports.” It requires…

Give the National Endowment for the Arts Back to the Public

Michael Astrue

For decades, Americans have become increasingly alienated from the American arts establishment. The main source for their…

Pro-Lifers and the Trump Administration: Wins, Concerns, and the MAHA Opportunity

Charles C. Camosy

Anyone with eyes to see and ears to hear knows that the pro-life movements have received some…