The Revisionist and The Astropastorals by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 0000000000000
Published: 2020-09-30T00:36:05+00:00

5.GENESEE FALLS

for Richard Reisem

Nothing is ever over in a place like this, which is one

Of the reasons why people come to look at it. As an

Exhibit the waterfall is naturally unsurpassed: part of

Its fascination must be in the way it demonstrates how

An event can be still permanent when it depends for its

Definition on continually going over the edge. You can

Look for some break in the action if you want, some least

Visible hint that what you’re seeing isn’t motion but

The separate frames suggesting it; you won’t find it, though.

There are variations, to be sure—the shadows migrating

With the regularity of geese up and down the gorge—

But the important thing, the smooth identifying bend

Incurred as the water, slipping from ponderous limestone

To slight gray air, begins (or just begins) to fall,

That constant feature never disappears. No matter how

Diminished or exaggerated the river is, you can count on

Coming here to get this permanent gravitational display.

It’s not even astonishing anymore, until you think of

How many ways the river might have gone. It begins,

For example, on the Allegheny Plateau and winds up where

The St. Lawrence does, but half an inch further south

And it would end in New Orleans instead, substantially

Unchanged. Or look at it like this: there shouldn’t

Really be a waterfall here at all except a glacial deposit

Happened to get in the way, deflecting the river toward

This weak spot in the shale. The more time passes, the more

The possible courses that are revealed. It’s your discovery

Of potential in modern times that makes a statement

Like Ralph’s astonishing: “People fall into the things

They do.” Up here on this bridge you know what gravity

Means, 114 feet from the bottom of the gorge, yet

Some have endured it as well as others and still survived.

With your Leica you’re like a reporter on the scene,

Angling for perspective as the accident obligingly recurs.

The results go up on illuminators sometime soon, the

Show put together, the script finally cued, a permanent

Look for a never-ending event will be achieved: it’s as if

A park of transparencies could be made. You already

Know what your favorite shot will be: from the east bank,

Sighted down on the bridge where a patch of light appears

Off balance, about to take the plunge. If we put it up front

It will make a nice jumping-off point for the speaker

When the lights go down. You’re good at this sort of thing

>So the production will be smooth, the focus excellent,

And when the lights come back up on schedule someone

Will say, “How’d it go over?”, as if it was.

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