Walls come together with hardly a seam. Wherever we are, we feel we have always been. Poe, for all his special effects, is rather banal in his approach to the supernatural, i.e. overly familiar. Against the inarticulate velvet of this mood, one grasps at the everyday for relief. Thus any object can bring us back with the fast-acting power of aspirin.
Any object shines.
Elaine Equi is the author of many books including Surface Tension , Decoy and most recently, Voice-Over , which won the 1998 San Francisco State Poetry Award. She lives in New York. It is made available here without charge for personal use only.