TWIST OF FATE
Michael Swensen | Dawn To Dusk 2019
Today is a simple twist of fate, one or two cups of coffee, the young boy with his left eye sealed shut with pinkeye, the loose grip of morning glory and the mellifluous call of the meadowlark, the seething broke-back blacksnake on the blacktop, the ripped britches of the old black barn on Mud Lick, a box of lockjaw and doorknobs, a ham and cheese sandwich, a half-dead calf in a sinkhole, the midnight waft of tuberoses, the third night of the waxing moon, repurposed fence rows and eastern bluebirds facing east, Eveline’s blonde hair, the oldest working farmer with one less eye and more more day, spending your last seven dollars on 21 shotgun shells, Today is just trying to leave something behind.
Michael Swensen, Ohio University | The 2018 Reinke Grant for Visual Storytelling at Boyd’s Station