Kind/Ness
Why call? She felt it as a betrayal, her affection given and then gone. Why the investment in all that kindness? Her kindness had never wavered, (even though she sensed there was nothing abject about Florence, and her ability to fly really, really, well made anything other than kindness futile). Kindness was constantly required to maintain their relationship and at times it taxed her so that she watched television and left the pigeon outside to its own devices. But then she went outside again a kindly young goddess of sidewalk pigeons kindly dispensing kernels of corn.
Why keep them on the phone? That day, like everyday, she had gone to school close by. She was at school nearby and when she came out into the open air at recess she looked across the road and thought about the pigeon. She mentally catalogued the bird's talents, the bobbing head, its oily sheen, the pigeon toes, and especially the bilateral syncopation of a racing pigeon's flight. Why open a dialogue? The bracelet was a hidden code, it belonged in the world of air not electricity. As it happened you could turn a pigeon on and off like a light bulb, she was always being told to turn off the light .
Why decode it? Some mysteries are meant to teach and should not be destroyed by understanding. She saw a car through the fence and she was curious but she put her curiosity in her pocket for the long school day. She let the car fade into the shrubs, their blossoms and bees and wondered hard if she would ever have a life with drama to write about. She could confide in Florence how she chafed in the everyday world and how she flew in its powerful undercurrents like Florence flew in air. It was curiosity not civil responsibility and the pigeon was gone.
The shape of absence is uncertainty. People and places should be gathered together, places to fly away from, not places left shattered and broken. When parts become separate and unrelated it means the end of habits and careless assumptions. The shape of absence is inevitable. The shape of absence is the problematic space between 2 and5.
Why keep them on the phone? That day, like everyday, she had gone to school close by. She was at school nearby and when she came out into the open air at recess she looked across the road and thought about the pigeon. She mentally catalogued the bird's talents, the bobbing head, its oily sheen, the pigeon toes, and especially the bilateral syncopation of a racing pigeon's flight. Why open a dialogue? The bracelet was a hidden code, it belonged in the world of air not electricity. As it happened you could turn a pigeon on and off like a light bulb, she was always being told to turn off the light .
Why decode it? Some mysteries are meant to teach and should not be destroyed by understanding. She saw a car through the fence and she was curious but she put her curiosity in her pocket for the long school day. She let the car fade into the shrubs, their blossoms and bees and wondered hard if she would ever have a life with drama to write about. She could confide in Florence how she chafed in the everyday world and how she flew in its powerful undercurrents like Florence flew in air. It was curiosity not civil responsibility and the pigeon was gone.
The shape of absence is uncertainty. People and places should be gathered together, places to fly away from, not places left shattered and broken. When parts become separate and unrelated it means the end of habits and careless assumptions. The shape of absence is inevitable. The shape of absence is the problematic space between 2 and5.
posted by vjane at 6:38 PM
1 Comments:
great writing jane. this other voice is really clear. more please.
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