Dear Empty Parsons Paper Building Before You Burnt Down Last Summer In A 9-Alarm Fire That Brought 80 Firefighters From Surrounding Towns,
Will you laugh at me if I tell you that you seemed sacred? The plywood covering your broken windowpanes reminded me of stained glass and the arches of your bays lifted like a cathedral. You were emptiness and potential.
Do you remember before the fire when you were filled with machinery that pulped and pressed paper? If you remember, can you tell me—were you consecrated by abandonment? In your youth, did a visitor ever pause in your vastness simply to be in awe?
Admiringly,
Alexis Fedorjaczenko writes poetry, essay, and in hybrid methods, and her visual work includes handcrafted Poem Objects, analog and digital collage, poetry, and photography. Her long poem “Ways to Enter an Abandoned Mill” was a Zoetic Press nominee for Best of the Net 2021; an essay about her visual poetry appears in Axon Journal; and for more info: AlexisF.com or Twitter. Alexis makes home in rural New England.
