Wringing the Cloth
A sodden cloth wrung rope-tight, the water forced out drop by drop—and the plain fact that it is never wrung dry, only wrung out.
EssayThe Path the Feet Chose
The straight path the planners drew, and the bald line worn across the grass where the feet, day after day, chose otherwise.
EssayRuins of a Sold Future
A ruin not of stone but of tarmac and tile: the dead shopping mall, and what it says that our newest ruins are the ones built to last least.
EssayDarning a Sock
A hole worn through at the heel, a wooden egg, and the small woven island of new cloth built thread by thread across the gap.
EssayThe Sound of Stone
The silence that meets you in an empty old church: a hush with size to it, and the way stone gives sound its shape.
EssayThe Bells Working Their Changes
A tower of bells working their changes—living mathematics rung by hand, the same peal never twice, order made audible over a town.
EssaySeasoning the Pan
Raw grey iron that would rust by morning if left wet, and the black patina seasoned into it, layer by slow layer, by use.
EssayThe Drawer of Cards
The old library drawer of cards, and the serendipity it manufactured—the book you left with never quite the one you came for.
Word, when there is word.