Photo Tale Collaborations with the Valente Sisters

Photo Tale Collaborations with the Valente Sisters
This post was published on the now-closed HuffPost Contributor platform. Contributors control their own work and posted freely to our site. If you need to flag this entry as abusive, send us an email.
Visit Christine’s portfolio.

Brooklyn-based multimedia artist Christine Stoddard created the following two photo collages of sister-poets Joanna Valente and Stephanie Valente. They then wrote poems to accompany their portraits. The photos and companion poems originally ran in Quail Bell Magazine.

Visit Christine’s portfolio.

Stepsister

By Joanna C. Valente

When did you lose your virginity?

At one point being

alone scared me.

Now my legs open

for the thought.

How is your relationship with your father?

I have switched

cities seven times.

Where is your blood?

We are in a bathtub

as big as a football

stadium and we are

ashamed of giving life

so we hide our

blood in towels.

How did you become human?

Sometimes I ask Father

to press from

behind me so I

can feel how he

survived.

Visit Christine’s portfolio here.

We Are Momentarily Being Held at This Station

By Stephanie Valente

my skin is hot--

burn out stars in sweat

dusting against

your clavicle voice

we are tired, just bone dry

former lovers,

ghost worshippers looking

for forgotten myths

who stole all of the ghosts?

we are tired, so tired

enough to bite our own tongues.

Visit Christine’s portfolio.

Visit Quail Bell Magazine to read more Photo Tales and view other creative projects.

Popular in the Community

Close

What's Hot