Features

Under Watchful Care
March 28, 2022 by Andrew Alexander
Waist high stone wall with entrance to street. On the left are two trees in bloom in front of a three-quarter angled two-story building connected to buildings of equal height as well as one-story higher moving towards the background. Colors resemble summer with the building and street in burnt sienna, green, sienna, white. The sky is light gray.

Street in Ávia (Ávia Landscape), Diego Rivera, 1908

Credit: Museo Nacional de Arte in Mexico City

My doorway rested beneath 


A large fan mounted in the ceiling.


Fan slates drew taut


and she sucked at life from open windows.




The house used to sigh.




When she eventually died--


--In the heat of summer,


a man came 


to fix 


a broken belt-- 


that held the home


tight.




The man peered between

long blades into the space where


Our every thought forgotten floats


And with his head 


and arm compromised


I flipped the switched--


--and the house let out a sigh.




Andrew Alexander is an illustrator, cartoonist and printmaker currently working in Brooklyn and sometimes known as AndyAlexAndy. His short essay, "Recent Past, Present Future" is also included in this issue.