M sent me a photograph by Daguerre. It is of the first human being to be photographed.
M sent me a photograph by Daguerre. It is of the first human being to be photographed. Someone is cleaning the shoes of someone. All descriptions of the photograph claim that the first human being to be photographed is the figure having his shoes cleaned. I see first the figure cleaning the shoes as the photograph’s subject. Secondly, the event of the shoe-cleaning. From this immediately I saw the state of the world.
From The Blue Clerk by Dionne Brand
Copyright © 2018 Dionne Brand
The Blue Clerk by Dionne Brand is nominated for the 2019 Griffin Poetry Prize, which will be announced on June 6, 2019. This poem is republished with permission.