Zachary Rockwell Ludington

Convesso

When photographing broken fruit
for album covers or magazines, you want
a man with a slow hand,
lighting, lenses, flashes, flush
with a nice per diem and a choice
of exit seat. A sense of sudden surface, and
everything is surface; palpable, pulpable,
relatively cheap. It’s not fair to yaw on about
La trahison des images; they have no
promises to keep! Everything
is surface, so try not to look too deep.
Get real. Don’t give and don’t ask
too much. You want a man with a slow hand,
you want a lover with an easy touch.

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Zachary Rockwell Ludington is Associate Professor of Spanish at the University of Maine. His creative work has appeared in PEN America, Bateau, Drunken Boat, LEVELER, Guesthouse, Numéro Cinq, and elsewhere. Cardboard House Press published his translation of Agustín Fernández Mallo’s Pixel Flesh in 2020.