Marina Manoukian is a reader and a writer who sometimes dabbles in collage art. She currently resides in Berlin. She is pursuing a Masters in English Philology. Her poem “Refraction” presents a fresh vision of love and identity.
REFRACTION
When you do things right, people won’t be sure you’ve done anything at all.
Something was definitely done.
All of a sudden particles kicked out from hiding behind their wavelengths. Lost in a motion
that cannot be determined beyond finite time. All of a sudden a box of incompleteness was
opened and all of a sudden it was seen that seeing could be.
I’m sorry you’re left with asymmetric string. I’m sorry you’re left with the burden of
knowing that something was done. That was not my intention. I don’t know what else I
expected to happen. I guess I wanted to know how much space I had. I wanted to test my
limits. Push the horizon past its most humiliating event so something could snap.
I’m sorry I was the cause. I’m sorry I gave birth to effect.
I’m sorry you’ve felt the need to take it upon yourself to explain. But I suppose if I’d left it at
nothing then there’d be nothing to explain. I didn’t mean to make it possible to observe. I
didn’t mean to give you perspective. Had I known that I was building the plank you would
later walk I would’ve resigned to my singularity. But I couldn’t have known. There was no
knowing back then. I’m as much a victim as you if you really think about it. Even I can
agree that it was better when everything was dark.
**
Photos by @deanastacia
