The nature of materiality is that an arm

reaching up through the water

may look like a branch but it’s still an arm.

An arm can be a branch of a tree.

An army staring back may be looking

at the face someone was wearing yesterday

before the army marched up to wherever

the person was standing, just breathing

like a leaf at the moment the army insisted

them almost out of existence. That’s

the nature of an army. The body lies there,

the earth weighs in. Mary is thinking, “If

only I were allowed to be the surgeon I am,

I could bring this body back to life.” Velvet

trim at the hem of her pants, her pants

held up by suspenders. Velvet trim on the

three-quarters skirt ballooning up and over

the pants. No one knows what it takes,

to step out the door each day. Truth and

beauty. The fragile head, the body situation.

After Dr. Mary Edwards Walker, Elliott & Fry Photographers, 1866–1867