blackbirdan online journal of literature and the artsFall 2009  Vol. 9. No. 2
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DAVID WOJAHN | Ochre

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Thoughtography, Ted Serios: A Part of a Series Produced By Serios
In The Laboratory Of The Physician James B. Hurry, Who Supervised
The Proceedings. Serios Was Placed In An Electrically Insulated
Room Called A Faraday Cage. He Had No Contact With His Polaroid Camera, Held In Turns By Eisenbud & Hurry Outside The Room

Polaroid, 1967

The Polaroid accordions open in the doctor’s hands.
His labcoat gleams. Within the dark of the Faraday Cage,

Serios sits & sways, seriously stoned
On a hipflask lunch of Crow.
                                              Gone are the shakes

& he’s free to concentrate. The next room over,
Doctor Hurry in repose before an empty wall—

He clicks the camera toggle down, a whir
As the photo spits out.
                                      A month of trials

Leading to a thousand photographs of “mental labor”—
An aerial view of the Denver Hilton, a pillbox

Hat à la Jackie, an iron, a toaster, a blue Corvair,
A Kit Kat bar. Ekphrasis so prosaic

It can’t be faked. The Shaman Self spit out to the air
Of the Mile High City.
                                  On extended boozy wings, it hovers.


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