Italics taken from Joseph Nicéphore
Niepce’s “Memoire on the Heliograph”
From the book before me, Joseph Nicéphore Niepce
limns instructions: fill half a glass with this pulverized
pitch. Pitch, as in resin or tar which hardens in the light,
which creates contrasting tones. Pitch, as in music,
as in the vibrations per second. For a second, I hear
my neighbor’s son playing piano. Note by note,
drop by drop, lavender oil. I’m only half listening.
Niepce lectures me on permeance. The piano fades.
Alone, in my kitchen, I turn on the ceiling fan
and reach for a highly polished metal plate.
I stare at its center, at this makeshift mirror.
Like butter, my reflection softens in the heat.
The hours slip through my fingers.
Does he sense I fear abandonment?
How does anything in this world stick?
His answer: pitch and Bitumen of Judea.
So, I reach for cold varnish and a very soft leather ball.
Round and round, I circle the ball on the plate
to spread a thin layer of pitch. A ball, pitch—
as in to throw or fling. My niece plays baseball in the park.
Be home before dark, I warn before she leaves.
My neighbor begins to sing. Shadows dapple the plate.
Niepce expounds upon etymologies, on hḗlios (sun)
and gráphein (to write). Heliography, the way to affix
an image from a camera obscura. And so, we circle
back to permanence. But I’m only half listening.
My neighbor’s stopped playing. My niece returns home.
Before me, a beautiful red color, a hue of anticipation—
a harmony of an instant captured in a single frame.
How long will it take? Niepce can’t say. Shadows congeal
before me. My hair is tinged with lavender, resin, and smoke.
Patience is leather-smooth, arced—a single note in the dark.
Published in Cider Press Review, Volume 28, Issue 2.
Shannon K. Winston’s book, The Girl Who Talked to Paintings (Glass Lyre Press), was published in 2021. Her individual poems have appeared in RHINO Poetry, West Trestle Review, The Shore, and elsewhere. She holds an MFA from the Warren Wilson Program for Writers and a PhD in Comparative Literature from the University of Michigan.
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