The Face Refusing Containment: Memory, Loss, and Levinas in Los Angeles

“The face is present in its refusal to be contained.”

— Emmanuel Levinas, Totality and Infinity 

…why he lingers—deliberately—before the memory
of her turbulent image,

running desperately through the streets
of Los Angeles,

in front of the advancing torrent of blood.

She raises her arms high.

A recurrent image.

His efforts to come to her rescue
are to no avail.

He is helpless.

She screams at him
from the depth of the indivisibility
of the scene

and the indivisibility
of his perception of her.

She will die, he reckons.

In the meantime,

dusk continues to advance
at par with the torrent of blood.

There is no arresting its dream.

The sky turns purplish.

Just like the lipstick
she would always wear….

The torrent of blood
has reached the ocean,

near San Pedro.

The waves turn purplish-red.

There is silence.

She is no longer screaming.