by Tony Schanuel
Distance Shrinks the Stars
I failed geometry in high school. Failed to learn
how to calculate the distance between two points.
Kept asking why it mattered. Teach me something
beautiful, Mr. Risdell, I said.
Distance is the teacher that holds a mirror to your face.
I remember my mother saying, How did I ever get to be ninety?
Her shock at the distance she travelled
since her own birth was genuine.
The distance between death and me is measured in
pleasures. I keep a proper distance from the edge
of the knife, rope and rafter.
Some things are meant to be viewed from a distance.
A mountain: what is it close-up but rock, dirt and trees?
From far away, all majesty as it rises above everything.
When memory recedes after loss, what we know
through our senses disappears. The body’s incense
doesn’t linger long. We struggle to keep the mountain in view.
Driving away, everything left behind reduces to miniature.
Julia Paul is author of two full-length collections, Shook, (Grayson Books) and Table with Burning Candle, (Cornerstone Press) and a chapbook, Staring Down the Tracks (The Poetry Box). Her poems are widely published in journals and anthologies. Her poem, “Dear Coroner, How Could You Know,” appears in the 2023 Pushcart Prize Best of the SmallPresses anthology. Paul leads the Riverwood Poetry Series in Hartford, Connecticut. She is an elder law attorney in Manchester, Connecticut.
Tony Schanuel is an award-winning photographer and visual artist who has fused a professional background in photography, digital technology, painting and mark making to create fine art that transcends those mediums. His work has been featured in Digital Imaging Magazine, Computer Graphic Magazine, Wild Heart Journal, St. Louis Design Magazine, and is a featured artist in Cyber Palette and Extreme Graphics, two books showcasing digital artists and their work. He has exhibited at the Florence Biennale and his art is held in private and corporate collections including the Fine Arts Museum of Houston permanent photographic collection. http://www.schanuelphoto.com.