works by william pham, 2005-present

index | poetry | fiction

100x450 - 01 - we wrap our arms around steel

This photograph is one of the few remaining artifacts we have to chronicle what life was like for the early 21st-century American. The most glaring difference -- the one most immediately obvious to any of us -- is, of course, the sky. You can see a variance of pale blues, grays, and desaturated yellows, with a thin white cloud cover, whereas we breathe through gas masks on playgrounds, in parks, in our homes, and beds, and we declare love through filtered voices to protect us from the pollutants in the air.

We only know our sky, our vast steel sky.

copyright (c) 2006 by william pham