Concertina
©2004 Craig Ashby
Digital Photograph

Concertina is a glorious set. Some in silhouette. Others showing plastic detritus. Bags shredded to pure beauty.

The shapes alone are worth the attention. Bent distortions. Spirals forever fucked. Those tiny serifs threatening skin.

Heavenly clouds in the background. Heaven is over there. On the other side of this prison camp wall.

It is just out there beyond the clouds. It’s all blue and white. Not anything like the black shadows of the barbed wire.

Heaven isn’t a huge vacuum of cold dark space. It’s all clouds and beauty and light. It is perfection.

How could anyone believe this idea? Whenever I see people on Facebook talk about a beloved relative being in heaven with Jesus I throw up a little in my mouth. A dumb idea built for even dumber people.

It scares me to think that whatever could create this enormously complex universe is sitting in some throne in a big blue sky called heaven. Not out of fear of God, but total horror that so many of you actually believe this shit. It’s sad and makes me worry about you.

Your pawpaw or nana are just fucking dead. They didn’t hang out with Jewish gods in real life, why would they in imaginary life? Were their imaginations even that good?