Empty Gesture

By Joshua Zeitler

At the factory, I pull the lever.

This is my job, and I am paid

with the satisfaction of pulling the lever.

I was never told what it does, but I imagine

it must be important. The pull of the lever

seduces me with its insistence, its resistance,

its hydraulic hiss when released. I imagine,

as I pull the lever, yellow balloons

surging one by one into the heavens.

When I walk out at night, I swear

there are more stars. I know it’s a delusion,

but I imagine the lever is a knife

unzipping the pink flash of a rare steak

or the pillowy white of a fat stack

of pancakes, skins glazed with the ghost

of butter. It haunts me — not the hunger

or the lever itself, or even the mystery,

but the familiar force of the effort.

How even now I pull the air.

Erin Taylor Kennedy, Sarah, 2023, digital photograph, 12" x 8".

Joshua Zeitler is a queer, nonbinary writer based in rural Michigan. They are the author of the chapbook Bliss Road (Seven Kitchens Press, 2025), and their work has appeared or is forthcoming in Ploughshares, Foglifter, Shō, Philly Poetry Chapbook Review, and elsewhere.

Erin Taylor Kennedy received an MA in Documentary Film from University of London, Goldsmiths College. After graduating, she worked as a documentary producer, cameraperson and editor. Over the past decade, she has worked almost exclusively as a commercial and documentary editor. In addition to her professional work, she has produced various personal projects using photography, video, and archival material. Her photographic work draws on her experience in video editing and visual storytelling, exploring how meaning emerges through the sequencing and juxtaposition of images. Through independent publishers Rayon Vert Editions and Basic Battle Books, she has released four photography books in the past decade. She cherishes the moments away from a screen, whether it's in a garden, a cinema, a dream, or a remote part of the world.