Binary Fission
by Brenda Sieczkowski
In a Highlights Magazine (circa 1982) Guess the Object photo, the moment of epiphany was designed to arrive with the revelation that the Aztec temple I had just been scrutinizing was, so said Answers Page, a grain of salt. But, perversely, my amazement always attached to the flip-side of the scale: every grain of salt potentially hid an Aztec temple that just needed enough magnified concentration of vision to excavate. More recently, my visions have shifted to magnified landscapes of the human body — the salty electric lap of impulse through a galaxy of neurons, organ tissues with intricately embossed fabrics. I find comfort and symmetry in the superimposition of microscope on telescope. As social and political landscapes loom more convoluted, more technologically enmeshed, more visibly violent, my hope is to recover some perspective from the magnified cells of human substance — the first site, and physiological seat, of impact. Word and image might function as ocular and objective lenses.
Brenda Sieczkowski’s poems and lyric essays have appeared widely in print and on-line journals. Her chapbook, Wonder Girl in Monster Land, was published in 2012 by dancing girl press. A second chapbook, Fallout & Flotation Devices, is forthcoming from Led Red Leaves. Like Oysters Observing the Sun, her first full-length collection, was recently released by Black Lawrence Press. Currently, she lives, works, and writes in Omaha, Nebraska.
Originally appeared in the online supplement to the Beyond Category issue 43.2-44.1