THINGS
last night I awoke
my head full of brilliant lines
and pissed them away by going back
to sleep
my dream memory is never accurate
but I will sort through the debris
like a staving third world kid
picks through those garbage dumps
and attempt to get a coherent ride
of the thought train
a friend has loaned me a much
sought after camera and a couple
of lenses
so I can shoot twenty five rolls
of 220 slide film
before the commercial film
developers
give up on the E6 process
how many cameras does one need
I already have three 35 mm film
cameras
two digital cameras
two 6x6 cameras
three Polaroid cameras
ten assorted lenses
and all the paraphernalia
required to be a professional
photographer
circa 1990
in cluding two complete darkroom sets
all unused and moldering away in my
living space
then there is the book problem
it is said that a educated man
should have
at least five hundred books in his
personal library
I have achieved that lofty ideal
several times in my life span
and am now into the fourth re
enactment
of that ideal
and the book are starting to move me
out of my living space
my clothes closets are jammed with
shirts and pants I rarely wear
other drawers are full of redundant
tech toys no longer working
and the cords and power supplies
needed
in other words junk like
cassette tapes 500 of them
vinyl records 250 of them
two eight foot shelves
with books of negatives
one eight foot shelves full of books
of slides
two hundred and fifty
matted display prints 11x14 and
larger
three 35 mm slide projectors
one 6x6 slide projector
three light standards
ttwo backdrop standards
two tripods and one mono pod
two tripod heads
three rucksacks
five shoulder bags
five suitcases
three computers
two cell phones
in other words
a life dominated
by things
my Father’s advice
to avoid having your life dominated
by things
was that you didn’t own eally own anything
if you couldn’t pick them up into
one easily carried load
and walk away
if not
then all your things owned you.
JWL
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