Joey Yearous-Algozin
this feeling called heaven
this pleasure in knowing
that though we’ve poisoned the earth
it will continue without us
violence lessening
as it expresses itself
finally free of our guiding hand
the return to a balance
or quietness
we imagine existed before us
and as this violence is expressed
in progressively
more minor ways
as the center dissolves
imagine
what we would’ve once called atmosphere
I want you to remember
that this violence no longer has a subject
that the real utopia
our collective death
offers the world
is only found in our own dissolution
and as our violence continues without us
as a fact
needing no witnesses
it asks nothing of us
and yet
we can’t separate ourselves from it
so this violence and our part in it are expressed
as waiting
or more accurately
a passivity that refuses participation
beyond the minimum effort of remaining present
for our end approaching far in the distance
aware that what we’re waiting for
is simply us
come again
there’s nothing left
but ruins yet to be made
we’re simply that which has yet to fall apart
all that’s necessary is to construct the altar
for the altar to disappear
from the book A FEELING CALLED HEAVEN / Nightboat Books
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Color photograph of the Installation view of Lynn Xu: And Those Ashen Heaps That Cantilevered Vase of Moonlight, 2022.
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via BOMB MAGAZINE
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