Construction of the Eschatology Center, image by Daniel Y. Harris
DETRITUS
The Blue Room,
Eugene Richards
Alphabet
wallpaper, corpses of birds
Bed
full of wood and plaster
Bricks
that used to be a wall
Broken
china and a jar of peanut butter
Christmas
lights still dangling on the porch
Cowboy
boot next to a collapsed bed
Cut
and tangled telephone wires
Dead
dog in the grass outside
Dismembered
doll on the windowsill
Dusty
rectangles where pictures used to hang
Family
photos stained with damp
Frozen
clock hand on the faded dial
Gates
keeping no-one out or in
Gingham
curtains shredded by the wind
Grey
sponge and dead cockroaches in the bath
Honeycomb
on a broken chair, red shoe on the floor
Horses
wandering across the road
Kids
bike and cattle skull
Lace
erupting from a door
Map
of the world on piled-up school desks
Mildewed
playing cards
Moth
wings on a baseball mitt
Nightshirt
on a hanger above the rotten sofa
Office
chair by the outhouse
Pearls
and a pink toy rabbit
Photo
in the sink with forgotten cutlery
Picture
of a place they dreamed of going to
Red
mould or lichen flowering on a green wall
Room
full of shoes
Rubble
on the lawn
Rusty
cars abandoned in a snowy field
Scaffolding
that used to hold up a roof
Spark
of lightning curling in the dusk
Stilled
circular saw
Timber
that used to be a shed
Torn-up
Jesus and a pile of washers and screws
Trees
that never used to be there
Tumbleweed
resting in an armchair
Unopened
letters, unpaid bills
Weeds
between the paving stones
Whitewash
that’s no longer white
Wooden
leg, kilner jar, empty can of peaches
—Rupert M. Loydell
