Memoria

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Black-capped Kingfisher (Halcyon pileata), Phra Non, Nakhon Sawan, Thailand: photo by J. J. Harrison, 2 February 2011

He saw, through the man's skin, his skeleton. It had been wired together, the bones connected with fine copper wire. The organs, which had withered away, were replaced by artificial components, kidney, heart, lungs -- everything was made of plastic and stainless steel, all working in unison but entirely without authentic life. The man's voice issued from a tape, through an amplifier and speaker system. Possibly at some time in the past the man had been real and alive, but that was over, and the stealthy replacement was taking place, inch by inch, progressing insidiously from one organ to the next, and the entire structure was there to deceive others. To deceive him, in fact...

Philip K. Dick: from Martian Time-Slip, 1964

Winter of inutile fretfulness and pain
Forgetting the little things and remembering the large
and as the light goes down, visions
of the small insectivorous birds of southeast Asia

In the country of the stranger, the nation
of the enemy, within the endarkened heart
The fallen bird in the gutter, after the holiday weekend car
hit it -- struggling for life, a female robin

Still warm in the palm, heart beating, neck
broken -- flexed backward impossibly, unable to breathe
Walked off and left it wing-folded in the ivy bank, whence frantic peeps
of the young still came

No longer able to remember
all those sad parades

American Robin (Turdus migratorius), on pavement: photo by Piotrus, 2007

American Robin (Turdus migratorius), juvenile: photo by Ken, 1 June 2010; image by Snowmanradio, 2010



Black troops at the Memorial Day parade, Constitution Avenue, Washington, D.C., May 1942: photo by Royden Dixon (Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Collection, Library of Congress)

Girl next to barn with chicken: photographer unknown, between 1941 and 1942 (Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Collection, Library of Congress)



Girl with doll standing by fence: photographer unknown, between 1941 and 1942 (Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Collection, Library of Congress)



Man outdoors, possibly a farmer: photographer unknown, between 1941 and 1942 (Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Collection, Library of Congress)



Man, possibly a farmer or agricultural laborer: photographer unknown, between 1941 and 1942 (Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Collection, Library of Congress)



Small farm of John P. Collier, Taunton, Massachusetts: photo by Jack Delano, January 1941 (Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Collection, Library of Congress)



Grading and packing onions, Rice County, Minnesota: photo by Arthur Rothstein, September 1939 (Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Collection, Library of Congress)



Basket of eggplants: photographer unknown, between 1941 and 1942 (Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Collection, Library of Congress)



Field of cotton: photographer unknown, between 1941 and 1942 (Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Collection, Library of Congress)



Field with tree stumps: photographer unknown, between 1941 and 1942 (Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Collection, Library of Congress)



Houses and factories: photographer unknown, between 1941 and 1942 (Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Collection, Library of Congress)



Brick building: photographer unknown, between 1941 and 1942 (Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Collection, Library of Congress)



Barker at the grounds of the Vermont state fair, Rutland: photo by Jack Delano, September 1941 (Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Collection, Library of Congress)



At the Vermont state fair, Rutland: photo by Jack Delano, September 1941 (Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Collection, Library of Congress)



At the Vermont state fair, Rutland: photo by Jack Delano, September 1941 (Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Collection, Library of Congress)



Federal housing project on the outskirts of the town of Yauco, Puerto Rico; about an acre of land is provided with each house: photo by Jack Delano, September 1941 (Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Collection, Library of Congress)



Eroded land: photographer unknown, between 1941 and 1942 (Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Collection, Library of Congress)



Trees in a reforestation project, Maryland [?]: photographer unknown, between 1941 and 1942 (Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Collection, Library of Congress)