A meditation about death and purpose by Marshall Weber, which he hand-wrote onto collaged, compressed, and lushly manipulated ink jet photographs of global cultural monuments snatched from the intersnakes by C. K. Wilde (Angkor Wat, Great Wall of China, Tikal).

Page layout by Weber, book design by Weber and binder extraordinaire Sophia Kramer of White Iris books, book-binding, and fabric sourcing also by Kramer.

The Potter and the Surgeon

Death arises
to contain me
as tight as the potter’s hand
grips the turning clay
forming the jar.

Once I knew a surgeon
who made guitars
she cried not
when the flawed board broke
or when the patient’s bloody heart stilled
knowing
that her strong slender fingers
had done their best
and
there would be more wood
to make sing
and
more bodies
to carefully save
in the coming days.