Material pulses
She was waiting for the cat to go to sleep so she could start something, or she was waiting for the cat to wake up any minute now, so she didn't start anything.
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The little jars of jam he’d brought back from all over the world, none of which she’d opened. She was saving them. For what, he asked.
He wanted to break all the seals, eat the jam with a spoon. A small spoon, appropriate, commensurate with the jar, but a spoon nevertheless.
But she kept them on a shelf, a shrine to what? A multitude of jams and also a tiny bottle of Tabasco sauce, the odd man out.
And pine cones and pine needles until they disintegrated in place, which they did sometimes. The acorns he’d brought her, their hats and their bodies, an equal number of hats and bodies, as if that were enough to pair them.
Fortunes pulled from cookies, little slips of paper.
Corks from wine, the tabs from milk cartons so they would not end up in the sea.
The pull tabs from Coke and seltzer cans from all the games of “he likes me, he likes me not,” hers and those of the other girls on the floor. The little games they played, to mark the passing of time.
Stones he’d brought her from different places, including the very flat ones from the shore of Lake Michigan in Gary, Indiana.
The colorful pins from the Met, before the Met replaced them with stickers.
Jars of all sizes filled with collected material pulses.
NEWSY STUFF
Sold out! Wednesday, April 1 launch party for SEARCH WORK: A Collective Inquiry into the Job Hunt, edited by Rachel Meade Smith (OR Books, 2026), available for pre-order now, and also for sale at the event. My essay is in the book so YES I WILL sign your copy!
But good news – save the date! – SEARCH WORK reading (yours truly and a few other contributors) and Q&A on Thursday, May 14 at the Adam Street/DUMBO branch of the Brooklyn Public Library. Special thanks to Katie Vermilyea at BPL for making this happen!
JUNCO AND WOLF, a story inspired by my year studying in Moscow, is forthcoming in Issue No. 33 of A Public Space. Stay tuned for a pub date and order link.
