Longer (Beautiful) Reads

Three gorgeous pieces I recommend. Yeah, they'll take a little bit of time to read (by internet standards), but all are so very worth it.

• "The Abyss," by Rebekah Frumkin in Granta (on working in a haunted house and being haunted humans).
• "How Long Has It Been Since You Smelled a Flower?" a mini-collection of prisoners' writing curated/introduced by Richard Shelton.
• "The Fourth State of Matter" by Jo Ann Beard in The New Yorker. This is so beautiful and moving and upsetting and perfect. (Many thanks to Richard Gilbert, whose newest blog entry sent me scrambling to read this essay!)

I'm just happy that writing like this exists. What are you reading this week that's keeping you warm, friends?

You Do Not Scare Me One Bit

You Do Not Scare Me One Bit

Tree in the form of a monster lunging
even you should not be ashamed of your body

Kosher Salt

Kosher Salt

Do you know yet how the calendar
is a liar Three days ago ice and now

mud There are avocados and apples
and strawberries in the market

You can buy whatever you want
to taste The grass is alive Today I saw

a weed in February healthier than
I felt When the snow falls sometimes

I imagine standing in it and eating
a soft pretzel letting the salt rain

down around me making a puddle
of dry ground in the snow to remain in

Building Code

Building Code

On this the walk back to yourself
every tree seems to shimmer under its own
history The water makes pictures
of the land and sky for the sky
and in leaving the water can say
I have been near you
You will pass the statue and see
how it was always a fountain
Bedrock of pennies some pumpkin-bright
some darkened The downtown tower
muscled with offices will live emptied of people
and light for half its life We made the buildings
in our own image but it has been tough to learn
We can empty out We can be full

Mirror Party

Mirror Party

Your mirror and my mirror have a party
a joyless party
They invite their mirror friends

They thought they had plenty of stories

but once they were together
they saw that among the hundreds of stories there was
little variance

A face
A face
Faces

Teeth in a line
Dark hair
An eyeball
Finger stretching an eyelid for white of an eye
Finger prying off the lash that climbed in

Tears and then water tossed lightly on the face
Yeah bodies
Faces mostly

Naked skin
an appendage

Still the conversations went on plainly for hours
geez, those faces
because it felt so good to be around other mirrors
that understood what it was like