above/ground press: Anna Gurton-Wachter

MOTHER OF ALL
Anna Gurton-Wachter
$5

I am standing in the river and, absent any structural changes, I will still be standing in the river. Absent any structural changes I am examining an inky pen I found in the river. This was how I first gained access to Gertrude Stein’s deathbed. Pull the curtain back and Gertrude Stein’s deathbed is there. “Deathbeds are a leisure product,” the voice from above calls out. The voice from above is a rescue pattern, the sincerely possessed dovetail center. I forgot that I had started weeping just for the compensatory elation. When did I get to be outside of being a woman? The woman without qualities. Around the deathbed are many objects and beside each object a moment of private translation. Communications are like whiskers jutting out sideways from the mouth, and we are drinking wine and talking about being born.

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
January 2018
celebrating twenty-five years of above/ground press
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Anna Gurton-Wachter is a writer, editor and archivist. Her chapbooks include The Abundance Chamber Works Alone (Essay Press, 2017), Blank Blank Blues (Horse Less Press, 2016) and CYRUS (Portable Press @ Yo Yo Labs, 2014). Other writing has appeared in No, Dear, 6x6, The Brooklyn Rail, Elderly, and PELT. She edits and makes books for DoubleCross Press. She currently lives in Brooklyn, NY a few blocks away from the building in which she was born.

cover image: Christine Shan Shan Hou
consciousness of illumination
collage on paper, 2014

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