Tolk’s photographic notes about the world he moves in ask at every turn “what is this?”

What is this,
when clouds are as ragged as rocks,
an old man sits with an empty glass,
an unfinished building unbuilds itself
in an empty landscape,
a tv clicker looks like an insult,
a modest dinner table has no guests,
snow fills a swimming pool,
a delivery truck is retrofitted as home,
the baker’s face is as dry as old bread,
luxury soap perches on a plastic table cloth.
the man in a suit waits outside a cheap motel.
the whiteboard fills with incomprehensible information.
What is this,
when coffins stack high in a small room, and
human bones crush like so many seashells.

Tolk moves in a world which aches for humanity.”

Laurie Haycock Makela,
Los Angeles, 2016