Social Sculpture

In social sculpture, the artist’s
materials include not just canvas
or marble, but also the space
in which the work appears
and the audience that views it.*

Consider a seagull’s erratic arc
carved from the air.  A meter
above beach, stone and delicate
marsh marigold bursting with June.
Consider our gaze south across
Dorcus Bay and clouds which
promise rain.  Consider that we
are alone, that a cool breeze
itches forever bent trees and
dark energy moves through us.
Unpainted on this canvas, as blind
and unfeeling as that sliver of
moon which rode the stars
last night.  Consider I cannot
feel your touch, nor you mine,
yet our thoughts and emotions
entwine, move with and through
each other, changing nothing.
Consider a seagull always in one
place, though constantly
on the move, unaffected by
the sculpture its arc creates.


*Jordan Himelfarb, in “Annals of Encryption:  Solving
the Weldon Library letter code mystery at Western
proves a welcome lesson in the strange bonds of
humanity, The Toronto Star”, April 5, 2014.