Coffee plantations from old novels. Moving to Brazil in 1951. The third trimester. Moss. “Speak again, speak like rain.”¹ Ambivalence of faith. Hair loss on the scalp of a beloved. The internet in South Sudan. Bark decaying on a fallen branch. Sea glass. The sea seen through glass. A hummingbird’s heartbeat. A horror movie. Wanting to fall in love. A selfie. A pandemic in 1912. White cop. White cop. Drawing a botanical replica of a single tulip petal. Stone Street.² Hafele and Keating’s East and West.³ Admitting a mistake. Rothko Chapel. “She showed me the unnaturally blue blueberries of the blue quandong.”⁴ A desire for the other side of the world. “Yes. I am coming soon.”⁵ Infinite Jest. The Orient Express in your imagination. The actual Orient Express. The opening credits of a movie before 1977.⁶ Learning to be sensible after years of being on the run. Sitting for a photograph in the 19th century. A national apology. Tectonic plates—“Or does the land lean down to lift the sea from under.”⁷ Over the next hill. Over the next mountain. Philip Glass’s “Einstein on the Beach.” Sitting still when you’ve taken no book with you. Wanting to become a morning person. Giving up on becoming a morning person. A pandemic in 2020. Falling in love.
References
¹Quote from the novel Out of Africa by Isak Dinesen
²The name of the 1908 Kentucky Derby winner, slowest in history
³Physicists who tested Einstein’s space time theory with cesium atomic clocks
⁴Quote from A Passion for Plants: Contemporary Botanical Masterwork by Shirley Sherwood
⁵Revelations 22:20
⁶Spielberg’s Star Wars changed the tradition to end credits
⁷A line from “Map” by Elizabeth Bishop
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More from our “In Praise Of” series:
The Vase, Maw Shein Win
Scissors, Conor Bracken
Carnival Ride Seats, Catherine Pierce
