Only in Aggregate, by Tricia Knoll

part of an installation/exhibition called State of Exception/Estado de Excepción, by Richard Barnes and Amanda Krugliak, through April 17 at the Sheila C. Johnson Design Center, Parsons School of Design, NY, NY.

Only In Aggregate
 
does sharp focus crystallize big pictures, untold
stories of the many and the more.
 
Migrating feet in mis-matched shoes,
tossed-aside wet socks. Border-crossers
stumbled through the dark.
No more weight wanted
for uncertain crossing.
 
Confiscated burdens of backpacks.
Someone stitched those seams.
Someone guaranteed the zippers, others
shut them on what could not be left,
a milagro, a full water bottle. 
Someone chose pink, purple, neon
orange and green, or camouflage.
Someone stitched a heart,
embroidered the cringing angel.
 
Aggregates suck our breath away,
stillpoint between rage and love.
One witness museum after another.  
Someone stitched a heart. Someone
embroidered a cringing angel.


Tricia Knoll

​Two weeks ago a man in my neighbourhood was picked up by immigration officials for deportation after having lived here for twenty years and having supported his wife and three American-born kids with a landscaping service. I am a poet and have been responding with social justice poetry. Website: triciaknoll.com