“Reverse: for the Standing People” to Linda Briskin’s photograph “A Please From the Earth” filmed by Todd Porter of Black Moon Productions.

Reverse: for the Standing People

                      after Linda Briskin’s “A Plea from the Earth”

Over-exposed, (or under-exposed,) opaque, obscure, translucent—
Is this picture a negative? A reverse slide?
Trees white as ash, a smoky sky, blazing white bushes,
all these summer forest fire memories captured. Igniting grief.

In photography, a negative is an image, on a strip of transparent plastic film,
                   in which the lightest areas appear darkest—and the reverse—

What have we done to darken our planet?
Where is corporate transparency?
How could we double-cross ourselves?
(Look through this image to greed.)

And unseen in the slide to ruin is lost sight, gift economy,
and the wisdom of our sisters, the standing people. They can guide the way
to reversal. If we stand in the shade of their understory.

A negative image can allow a different perception
                   of an everyday scene, perhaps highlighting spatial relationships,
                                            and details that are less obvious in the original image.