Concave Corner

Buttons from Erin Kearney on Vimeo.

Try as I may I can’t snap into place. Corners are made up of two interlocked disks, and like the seam of a shirt they go unseen. Just a line and two planes living in space. But as you can see, I’ve surpassed my own snaps. As buttons teeter bursting on a fat fleshy belly, I am held in only by the plaster slapped on me. To maintain my existence, I had to stretch thin. Reaching between these two walls, I’ve rounded rim. Is a corner still a corner if it meets on a curve? Forgo my hard edge and hollow the hem. I’ve warped the room, but I still keep the line. Well a line of some sort. I’ve been sewn into place, spare buttons employed. Reaching and stretching to bridge my own gap.

A daily practice

 

Ooey amber drips back to the jar unless the spoon turns like there’s glass on a pipe. Water warmed on a stove top filled up to the brim, is ready once the Chantal kettle whistles. Two azurepaisley mugs can be grabbed from the cabinet with knots in the panels that make up a face. If you’re short, you’ll need two steps up from the stool. Some will take three with one knee on the counter. The tall mugs, like beer steins, but slightly refined. Filled up with concoctions of liquidcreamhoney and held at the handle until contents drip cold. Sip, slurp, dunk, dip, and laid out to dry. I’ll dye that ripped paper that’s off to the side. White dresser top stained with a slight rosy halo. Collected and kept safe to accrue and grow. Staples and strings severed without hesitation, I was lined up and laid out without plan for existence. Unfolded and furloughed from my leafy insides, then unfolded again to flatten my hide. I tiled the floor, fleshyblush over white. Then fused at my grout joints, I began to take flight. I hung from the ceiling from a black wiry strand, masking a chair that sat two figures dancing. But that wasn’t quite right. Torn apart once again, with some glue still attached, I became a new form and started from scratch. Bent, crimped, curled, and tucked until I piled up tall. Separated by sevens, there was a plan after all. Coptic stitch bound by the black wiry mane; collected and cared for, and slowly obtained. Now I sit as a codex, as a buildup of time, to reminisce and recall as the years pass me by.

 

Locker Loop

  

Seam from Erin Kearney on Vimeo.

I wonder if you’ll notice, that I’m hanging by a thread. Well, a thread of some sort. Quadruple knot strands should ensure I won’t slip. Am I slipping or slouching? Perhaps some of both. I wasn’t always this way. A line grown out of space. Standing up from the floor boards, at five feet nine inches. There was much more of me, but also much less. I was packaged and pressed with my own business placket.

A modest blue collar that read dry clean only.

I was flipped inside out. Ripped apart at my joints. Re-sewn with new seams. But my thread wasn’t thread. Or not thread from a spool. A thread from a head. I was sutured and stitched with a semi-bent needle; which curved over time as each stitch proceeded. Again, and again until the thread became seen. I was more than apparel, but my form hadn’t shifted. So, I started to lose all that wasn’t sewn in. The sleeves are now gone, and the cuffs cut away. I am no longer shelter, but a hint of me stays. A locker loop’s left near the top of the line. A token of memory that stays by my side. Rooted to floor boards in the middle of space. I used to be hidden, but now I’m embraced. I am my own being, no shirt left to tether. I stand on my own. An edifice towers.

Pocket Window

 

Plastic buttons adorn me, but make no mistake I am no longer a shirt, nor a piece of cloth shelter. I have outgrown my form and been cut from my seams. Now sewn and resewn, I’ve become an addiction. Digging through carpets, sifting shower drains, congregate at the fingers, and comb through twice daily. I’ve gathered the too much your brush couldn’t hold. Understanding the framework, a blue collar once told.  A shirt-like resemblance to pull apart and contort. Fusing with fibers to bring myself forth. An incomplete loop fastened tight to hold tension, pulls and prods to expose my skin-like existence. A once-was-compartment sails passed its own bounds. Is a pocket still a pocket when not rooted down? Well it is still secure, just not as it was. Revealed by its binding, it’s lost its because. Is it floating or hanging? Perhaps some of both. I have built a new skeleton, or so it evokes. You’ll notice how tethers take over the seam and have made a new window within the hoops means. Not a window to look through, but an eye rest you’ll see. A type of stained glass or painting maybe.